Finding What's Eternal
by neharika
Summary: Alys's journey after the events of Dragon's Bait- to find where she belongs, and for that matter, who she belongs with!
1. Chap 1: Selendrile's gift

**Finding What's Eternal**

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Chapter 1

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Alys stared at the rabbit Selendrile was holding out to her, her mind completely blank. She shifted her gaze up to Selendrile, who stood there, more or less patiently, waiting for Alys to respond. Her gaze fell back down to the limp body of the rabbit before she finally managed to blurt out, "It's not alive."

"Yes, well it was, but I figured if I gave you a _live_ one you'd do something insensible such as remark on it's general appearance and undoubtedly end up releasing it," Selendrile replied, in a tone that was matter of fact.

Alys blinked at him. Well, holding out a dead rabbit to her certainly hadn't kept her from remarking on it's general appearance. Though, perhaps not in the same way she would have had it been alive. Selendrile gave the rabbit a little shake, indicating his impatience. Alys cleared her throat and set down her messy attempt at a half-weaved basket, turning on her rock perch a little to face him. "You know, when people give gifts to each other as a sign of good faith and friendship, they typically pick things other than dead animals," she finally settled on saying.

Selendrile frowned at her, taking her hand and forcing the rabbit he had been scruffing into it. Alys yelped at the feel of it's twisted neck in her hands and promptly dropped it, the little rabbit sliding off her rock and onto the slightly smaller rocks below. Both Selendrile and Alys stared at it for a little before looking back up at each other.

On her perch on the rock outcrop their eyes were on the same level, though in the rapidly fading light Alys was beginning to have trouble making out his expressions. She really shouldn't have stayed out here so long. It was much safer for her to make her way to their cave while it was still daylight out, especially given the fact that her 'path' down the mountain side, which in her opinion was bordering on a cliff, was more or less just a slightly more clear way through the rocks. When she had first agreed to live with Selendrile they had continued traveling around for awhile. He had evaded answering questions about where they were going, and she suspected that this was more due to the fact they didn't actually _have_ a destination than due to the fact he didn't want to share it. Finally after a couple weeks of aimless travel Selendrile apparently made up his mind about where they were going and finally led Alys to this cave. When she first glimpsed the mountainside she had been understandably confused as to where they were headed and demanded that Selendrile either fly her over the mountain or let them walk around it, stating that it was cruel to force her to climb up such a steep and rocky mountain side, at night of course, just because it struck his fancy. Selendrile had only laughed and informed her that she was free to do as she pleased, but she was never going to end up where _he_ was headed if she tried walking around. After several hours of her stumbling, tripping, and knocking various body parts into rocks- oh and, nearly skidding down the mountain side a few times or two, they finally reached the cave entrance. Alys had stared at Selendrile incredulously when they reached it, his intent finally dawning on her, and Selendrile once again just laughed at her.

It turned out however that the cave really was a fairly good living arrangement for the both of them. This no doubt was due to the fact Selendrile had picked it out once Alys had joined him, a fact which she couldn't prove but strongly suspected, and she had been touched at how much he had taken her human needs into consideration when picking them a 'housing' arrangement. Even the darn path up the mountain had been a calculated benefit, for it was quite hard to recognize and it's destination, the cave, was rather difficult to see even in the daylight. The following night Selendrile had found her wandering through the rocks nearly crying from exhaustion and frustration at being lost for hours on end, and when he had made an amused comment on her current state she had snapped at him that it was all his fault for picking such a stupid hard to find cave. It was then that Selendrile pointed out living in a place that was hard to see and access was good for both of their safeties an offered to help her figure out the path. It took several trips up and down the mountain together for Alys to finally figure out how to find her way from the base to the cave, and a full week's worth of effort. But even now she had difficulty at night sometimes and preferred to make her trips up and down during the day.

Today however, she had been distracted by her sad attempts at basket weaving, and once she realized the sun was setting had been unable to tear herself away from her wonderful view. It was only now as Selendrile faced her and she was unable to read his expression that she realized perhaps staying out on the rock ledge so late had been a poor idea. Even if her only reason for regretting it was that she couldn't read the dragon youth's emotions at her dropping his gift on the ground. Oh and, the trip back to his cave in complete darkness without a torch.

"It's not a sign of friendship or good faith, it's a sign that you need to start learning how to prepare your own food. It's a nuisance to steal you food all the time," he finally replied.

"But I don't know how to prepare food from _that_," Alys protested, pointing down at the rabbit.

"Are you saying you didn't prepare your own food when living with your father?"

Alys crossed her arms across her chest at his judgmental tone. "Yes I did, but the butcher was the one that handled it when it still looked like _that_," she said once again indicating at the rabbit. "Besides," she said her indignation rapidly fading into embarrassment, "we couldn't afford meat all that often. Not fresh meat at least."

"It's easiest if you just eat it when it's alive," Selendrile supplied pleasantly. Alys blew air out her nose forcefully in irritation at his none-too-helpful suggestion. "It's only been dead for a little, perhaps if you just eat it now…"

"Ew!" Alys screeched waving her arms in front of her, as if fending off the idea.

Selendrile shrugged, but she had a distinct feeling he was pleased at himself to have elicited such a response. "Well, if you insist on eating it that disgusting way you humans seem fond of, I did bring you back some tools."

Alys stared forlornly down at the rabbit. "Must I eat it?" she asked dejectedly, already knowing the response.

"If you want food tonight."

Yup, she had been spot on in her prediction. Alys sighed and picked up her basket which was slowly expanding outwards on one side, before sliding off the rock and gingerly picking up the rabbit by it's hind feet. She imagined it hopping happily through a field of flowers, stopping to sniff the ground with it's little nose, before twitching it's ears and hopping on. And then a dragon swooped down to end it's happy little blissful existence. And now she was going to eat it. Oh, the joys of fending for oneself. Well, sort of fending for oneself.

Selendrile nodded when she stood up to face him and began leading the way back towards the cave. The distance wasn't far, but they had to go slowly for her in the poor light and eventually, when the last of the sunlight had completely faded away, Alys had shifted her basket under one arm and held onto the back of Selendrile's shirt for efficiencies sake. When they reached the entrance of the cave they veered off into the opening to the left that served as Alys room. Selendrile had claimed the rest of the small cave for his personal sleeping quarters. When they first had arrived she could tell her comings and goings had woken him each time she passed by the main entrance, but he had apparently learned to recognize her movements across the front of the cave as a non-threat and finally, when she roused at midday and wandered out, she no longer roused him as well.

Selendrile led his way across her room to the fire pit, which was near the back wall and placed just slightly off from being under an opening in the ceiling, which at the moment revealed the twinkling stars in the sky. Its placement allowed for a nearly all the smoke to directly head out of the cave, but also allowed the fire to exist in less than ideal weather conditions. He knelt and struck her pieces of flint together, effortlessly catching the kindling on fire and began skillfully arranging the wood. Alys eyed him jealously, wondering if being a dragon inherently made one good at handling fire, no matter where it originated from. She certainly never got a fire going that effortlessly regardless of how much experience she had with them.

Once Selendrile was satisfied with the progress of his fire he stood up and headed away, presumably to fetch some of her torches, which were placed strategically around her little cave room. In the meantime Alys examined the little pile of things he had brought back for her: a hammer, what appeared to be a giant nail, some rope, a couple knives, a new cutting board, supplies for making new torches and a few vegetables- not enough to make three meals worth though. Selendrile came back and knelt by the fire to light the two torches he was holding, and then headed back to place them into the rock walls where they typically resided. Alys eyes followed him until he was a safe distance away before she sneaked over to the large basket where she stored her extra food supplies. She nudged the lid open with her foot and peered in. The usual stock of bread and cheese were missing, as were all the other extra vegetables and fruit, save a single apple. Tricky dragon. Alys let the lid drop down quietly before turning to glare at Selendrile, finding him by the fire now, eyeing her innocently. Ha! Like that was going to work on her.

Selendrile hummed a few short lines of a folk song children in her town often sang as he picked up the hammer and large nail and began slowly walking around her room surveying the area. Where had he learned _that_? Alys wondered watching him. Her cheeks suddenly went hot when she realized she had been singing it a day or two before during the day when she assumed he was sound asleep. Only, apparently, he hadn't been. Oh no, he hadn't been and was letting her know. And if his rendition of those few short lines was any indication, she had sung it slightly off key—for she seriously doubted any flaws in his humming were due to _his_ own fault. Drat, drat, drat, Alys thought chewing on the side of her lip.

When she finally glanced back up, Selendrile had found the location he was looking for in the far corner of her room and was currently wedging the large nail into the low hanging ceiling. Alys hurried over to where he stood and glanced up at the nail. "What are you doing?" she asked.

"Well, you need somewhere to hang the animal don't you? At least butchers always do," he replied mildly as he pounded the nail into a crevice between two fallen rocks that composed the ceiling in this corner. Alys winced as a few pebbles fell down, but when she looked back up Selendrile was tugging at the nail which was now securely in the fully intact ceiling. With a satisfied nod he turned and handed her the hammer. He observed her for a second before turning back to his creation. "It's not far from the fire, but a good distance away from where you sleep," he said indicating to the pile of animal pelts that composed her bed, which rested on the opposite side of the fire, along the side wall, closer in to the center of her room. The nail on the other hand, was in on the corner of the other side wall and the back wall, which happened to be the wall farthest from the entrance. Alys nodded and Selendrile continued, "and the ground drops away some here, and if you were to say pour a bucket of water on the ground here to clean the area, the water would naturally flow out of the room down those." He pointed to the holes in the jumble of rocks that composed this corner of the room.

When Alys had first moved into this cave room she had been highly suspicious of this corner, which she could just envision crumbling and trapping her while the rest of her little cave room stayed perfectly intact. As a result, she had typically avoided this corner. Perhaps the suspicious corner had had it's advantages all along. "Hmm," she allowed, still chewing on the side of her lip.

Selendrile narrowed his eyes at her slightly, clearly not impressed with her lack of enthusiasm. As he stalked back over to the fire to fetch the rabbit and other supplies Alys quickly made a face at his unsuspecting back. Well, he clearly had known she wasn't going to like this or he wouldn't have confiscated all her other food rations. He had no right to get annoyed with her for responding exactly the way he had expected! Selendrile promptly returned and stuffed the rabbit back into Alys hands, along with a knife. Alys had to fight the urge to immediately toss the rabbit away from her. The thought of dropping the hammer and knife accidentally on her own feet in the process was about the only thing that kept her from carrying out the impulse. She eyed him warily as he secured one end of the rope to the nail, realizing that the time for her to actually participate was rapidly approaching. "I doubt I'll be able to reach that," Alys complained.

Selendrile grabbed the rabbit from her arms and went to tying the lose end of the rope around it's hind foot. "Not a problem," he replied cheerfully enough, "We can leave that end of the rope tied for you. Besides, I bet you can reach it if you stand on your toes." He turned to survey her, presumably comparing her height and arm length to his own. Which, Alys thought, even he had to admit was a decent bit taller. Alys wasn't exactly tall for a girl, and Selendrile, being a perfect dragon youth in human form, was an impressive model of the male gender. Which included a decent amount of height. And muscle. And good looks. And beautiful eyes….

Alys realized that her expression must be dangerously close to pouting over the fact that her rejection had been a failure and did not in fact, delay the inevitable, and with effort took a deep breath, straightening her face out. Selendrile gave her a faint smile and indicated at the knife in her hand. "Go ahead. I believe the first step is to skin it." With that he put his hand on her back and gave her a little push in the direction of the rabbit.

Alys looked sadly down at the knife before heaving a sigh and bending down to finally set the hammer down. She stood back up and lifted the knife up near the rabbit before freezing. She had absolutely no idea what to do. "Uhhhh…." She said turning to look at Selendrile with an uncomfortable half smile. Or maybe it was a grimace. She couldn't quite tell. Selendrile only managed to look annoyed for a brief second before he started chuckling at her again, reaching around her to grab the knife she was still holding up and waving her away with his other hand.

He certainly wasn't as efficient at it as he could have been, pausing every once in awhile for a few seconds to ponder what to do next, but he definitely achieved results—which was something Alys couldn't say for herself. Every once in awhile he would step back and hand her the knife, with a little shove towards the rabbit, and Alys would make a pathetic attempt at the process, before Selendrile got annoyed and shooed her away again to show her how to do it. Or at least, how he would do it, which may or may not have been the way butchers would have done it. Alys wasn't entirely sure. That's pretty much how the entire process went right up until when Alys actually had to attempt cooking it, at which point she was so frustrated that she took her anger out on innocent vegetables on her now deemed 'Non-meat' cutting board. This earned her an amused comment from Selendrile, which earned him a snappy, perhaps slightly rude response. This was followed by some degrading comments directed at the vegetables too.

Finally Alys was able to dump a more or less edible cooked meal onto one of her wooden plates. She went over to Selendrile and plopped down beside him on top of her bed, smiling proudly down at her plate. Selendrile leaned over to sniff her plate. "Smells terrible, you sure that's edible?"

Alys content smile slid off her face instantly. She took a piece of carrot out and flicked it at his face. "I'd like to see you do better!" she huffed, before turning back to her plate.

"No thank you," Selendrile replied good naturedly, leaning back to stretch out on her bed. Alys eyed him, as he lay there peacefully. Now that she actually had some food, granted a good hour or two after she normally had it, her annoyance had quickly faded and she was able to look back on the evening with a more or less unbiased view. She really was lucky that he seemed to find her so amusing. She could easily see how if she treated another male the way she treated Selendrile, she may wind up regretting it. She could even see things going horribly awry with Selendrile if she had treated him this way when she first met him. But for the most part Selendrile seemed to enjoy her temper, nearly as much as he liked making her uncomfortable, or feel silly. He also seemed to generally enjoy their occasional bouts of bickering. In fact, Alys strongly suspected he purposely baited her into most of these situations; perhaps part of being a mighty dragon involved a certain satisfaction in messing with humans. But maybe, she wondered, she enjoyed this nearly as much as he did? One of Selendrile's eyes popped open. "Yes?"

"Nothing," Alys muttered quickly turning back to her plate. She stuffed a large chunk of her food into her mouth and started chewing with gusto. But once she was actually able to _taste_ it her chewing pace slowed down considerably.

"Not as tasty as you had hoped?" Selendrile asked, sounding a little too serious and uninterested. Alys glared at him, and continued chewing.

"That's not the case at all," she assured him after she swallowed. She turned back to her plate, only pausing for a second to look down at it disdainfully, before stuffing the next portion into her mouth. Okay, she admitted to herself, so she didn't completely know how to cook with these new foods and spices Selendrile brought her from presumably larger towns. But that didn't mean she wasn't a decent cook! She did perfectly fine when she was working with the cheap, easily accessed basics. She just needed a little more practice with these fancier foods. Not, that she would ever admit this to Selendrile. No, it's best not to show such a weakness to him, lest he decide to capitalize on it. After a few more bites a thought occurred to her. "Selendrile, you're not going to bring back larger animals are you?"

"I don't see why not."

"But… how am I going to keep fresh meat from going bad until I can eat it all? You wouldn't eat what I don't use since it's not alive anymore, would you?"

Selendrile pondered this for a little while Alys continued eating. "In the very back of the cave is a spot that's quite cool. We could store the rest of the meat there and with the help of some salt…" he trailed off and shrugged.

"In the back of the cave?" Alys asked, only her mouth was full of food so it came out sounding more like "In da bahhhk oaf da caah?" She swallowed the food before continuing once she saw the look Selendrile gave her. "But I'll probably have to get some during the day at times, and if you're sleeping in the other room…" She trailed off, tilting her head to the side as she realized that she was now referring to parts of caves as rooms. How things had changed.

"It's alright, I'm used to you now. I can sleep through you walking past me as long as you don't do anything unusual. Come on I'll show you," he said standing up abruptly. Alys stared up at him, mouth full of food, surprised by his sudden movement.

"Neeh-oow?" she managed.

Selendrile frowned down at her. "I don't recall very many other young ladies talking with their mouths full in front of me whenever we were in towns."

"Ha! That's just because they all were trying to look their best for you! I know better!"

Selendrile's reply to that apparently was to just walk away. "Grab one of those extra sheets and the rabbit," he called out.

Alys paused for a fraction of a second before dropping her plate down and scrambling to grab what he had told her to before she lost track of him. By the time she had caught up with him he was mostly through the part of the cave he slept in with a torch in his hand. He led her past it and on the right led her through a narrow crack in the wall, only wide enough to fit two people across, that Alys had never noticed existing before. It finally opened up a little in tiny cave. He led her up the side of it by means of a ramp like side and into a hole in the wall close to the ceiling. This room opened up in what looked like a mini low ceilinged cavern, which was notably cooler than the rest of the cave. He paused here, so Alys set the folded sheet on the ground and placed the leftovers of the rabbit down on the ground. Selendrile nodded and turned to leave. As they headed out Selendrile rather excitedly asked, "So what are we doing today? Basket weaving? You make the most _interesting_ shapes with your baskets."


	2. Chap 2: Moving down the stream

**Finding What's Eternal  
**

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Chapter 2

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A/N: I guess if you're reading this chapter you liked the first one well enough to continue! Thank you for reading :) I apologize this story is going to have a slow start, but I promise it'll all be relevant to the ending (or at least the ending as I now envision it). Comments are much appreciated, but please be kind! I've always been a math science person, I've never been much of a writer-just a girl with and idea I wanted to get out of my head!

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_Alys sat by the water tossing pebbles in. It was such a beautiful day out, she wished days like this could last forever. They were so peaceful, as if she didn't have a care in the world._

"_Alys! There you are my girl."_

_Alys turned to see her father approaching her. Once he reached her he bent down to kiss her on top of the head and knelt down to sit next to her. "What are you doing my child?" he asked her with a smile._

_Alys smiled back and showed him one of her rocks. "You know, if you throw a flat rock across the water, it may bounce across the top," she told him almost conspiringly. Then she turned back to the water and threw the rock across. To her delight, it was one of her more successful attempts and the rock managed a full three hops before dropping through the surface of the water to its final resting place. She turned back proudly to her father, expecting to hear a word of praise. He was always so kind and encouraging to her. But to her surprise he only looked sad._

"_Where did you learn that dear?"_

_Alys felt her smile falter. "What?"_

"_Where did you learn that? I didn't teach you such a thing, I never got a chance before I was taken away from you."_

"_What…?" Her father taken away from her? But he was right there!_

"_It was that young man wasn't it? That dragon!" Her father spit. Alys turned to face him completely, but he was now turned away from her so she couldn't see him. The dragon? Oh yes, Selendrile. Yes, she knew him. Why did her father sound so bitter though? Her dad had always been so kind and gentle. It was nearly impossible to upset him. "You left him for me didn't you? You're glad I died, because now you get to be with that beast!"_

_Alys felt her chest tighten at the memory that he was dead. "No father, no! How could I ever be glad you died?"_

"_Well what about me?" a smooth voice said behind her. Alys jumped at the sound of the voice, and the hands that belonged to it rested on her shoulders lightly. They began caressing her shoulders and upper arms as Atherton leaned in to whisper by her ear. "Careful, lying is a sin, Alys. You don't want to add another sin to the list do you? Look how many people's lives you endangered. Not to mention you're already responsible for your fathers death, you wouldn't want to damn your soul anymore than you have already?"_

"_No, no, I didn't kill him," Alys whispered._

"_Of course you did," Atherton purred, his hot breath in her ear. "And how do you make up for it? By replacing him with that creature. Don't you miss him at all Alys?"_

_Alys stared at her fathers back horrified. "Of course I miss him! I miss him every day…" she managed._

"_No, I don't think you do. Because if he were still here, you wouldn't have your precious little dragon. But you never answered my question Alys, what about me?"_

_Alys's heart was thundering in her chest. She felt Atherton's body draw even closer to her as he anticipated her response. But how could she answer that? She was responsible for his death. She hadn't meant for him to get killed, she didn't choose for him to get killed—but it had happened. And though she had told Selendrile she was sorry Atherton died, was she? Could she honestly say she didn't want him dead? Murdered? Oh god, what kind of person actually got someone else killed and didn't regret it? A dragon, a small voice in her head whispered. The same thing that she had taken up company with. The same thing that made her happy so soon after her fathers death; made her happy enough to forget her father somedays. Alys shook her head unable to listen to her thoughts anymore. _

"_You!" she whispered coldly. "You're the one who killed my father!" But she stopped when she saw her father shake his head sadly. She felt tears begin to well up in her eyes. "No father! I didn't kill you! I love you! It was Atherton, it was Atherton…" she sobbed. _

_Atherton's hands finally slid up to her neck and rested there as he began whispering to her again. "If you really believed that don't you think he would? But you don't, because you did kill him. Just like you killed me. And you're glad we're dead."_

"_Father, please!" Alys sobbed. "I love you!"_

_Her father turned around finally. "But I don't love you." Alys gasped, partly because of what he had said and partly because she finally saw his face again. Because it wasn't the healthy face she had seen moments before. It was the face of a dead man. "I don't love you Alys, because you're not the daughter I raised anymore."_

_Alys gasped again, only this time it was because Atherton's fingers clamped down around her neck, cutting off her airways. "Come Alys, let us become pure again together," he said as he began dragging her away on the ground. Suddenly Selendrile was there sitting between her and her father who still stared with his dead eyes at her sadly. _

"_Ahhh, here's Selendrile to help us. He does so enjoy to toy with you. Such fragile mortality must be so intriguing. But not as intriguing as death." Alys tried to choke out a protest, but his hands were too tight. Selendrile roared and the brittle trees around them burst into flames. "Say goodbye Alys, it's time to join me. Together we can become pure, the evil will burn out of us!" Alys tried reaching for her father, for Selendrile, but neither helped her as Atherton dragged her into the flames with him. Selendrile looked at her with disgust before jumping into the air and flying away. _

_Alys looked at her father desperately, but could barely make him out through her tears and rapidly fading consciousness. But before everything went black and the flames licked her body she did hear him say, "You deserve this Alys."_

Alys jerked awake, trembling. It had been almost a week since her last nightmare had plagued her. She had been hoping that they were finally over, but apparently her reprieve had been short lived. The nightmares had started shortly after Selendrile had rescued her. While they were always different, they had similar themes, each equally horrible in their own way: her father blaming her for his death, or being disappointed with the person she had become, or being saddened by her ability to be happy only two months after his death, Atherton coming to kill her, or blame her for his death, or accuse her of not really be sorry, or still trying to trade her soul, the townsfolk coming for her, blaming her for peoples deaths in the fire despite the fact that to her knowledge no one had actually been harmed.

But the worst ones of all were the ones where Selendrile turned on her, because if Selendrile ever did turn on her, she'd be truly alone. And no matter how guilty she felt caring about him, and no matter how sure she had felt before Selendrile asked her if she wanted to stay with him that she could forge a new life on her own, the truth was that she was scared. She was scared of being alone, of being unlovable, of being hated more than she already was. And if Selendrile left her, what was left? Someone who loved no one, who had no one in the world to love her back, and wasn't sure she could love herself at the moment. And without any of that, what was the point? She wasn't sure she could really call Selendrile a friend, seeing as he had never exactly done anything to make her think he _cared_ about her, but she adamantly pretended he was her friend. Because she really needed one.

Selendrile had of course noticed the nightmares. The first time it happened he had been very curious. Dragons apparently, weren't entirely familiar with the concept of nightmares. But after it happened several times he started regarding them warily and then finally, almost appeared concerned, only Alys knew better. Maybe he was concerned that he had picked out a broken human to hang out with. More trouble than she was worth.

But even when he switched into the 'concerned' phase, she still refused to tell him anything more than that it had been another nightmare, and in the end he started politely pretending he didn't notice them. Alys had been glad when he finally started ignoring them, because she had no idea how to explain them to the dragon. She also was worried that if she started explaining one of them to Selendrile she would start crying. Her father had come up in conversation once before and Alys had broken down crying, never having been given the chance to properly grieve him before. Selendrile wisely avoided the topic afterwards, and so did Alys, who had perhaps been even more uncomfortable with the crying-in-front-of-Selendrile incident than he had been.

Alys sighed and rubbed her eyes. She had to do something. She had to get out of here and do something. Her eyes swept around her room which was dimly lit through the opening in the ceiling near the fire pit. They ended up resting on a tin kettle that she had insisted on buying in one of the towns Selendrile and her had visited during their wandering. Selendrile had insisted that it was useless, since it wasn't worth anything and was rather small in size, but Alys had ignored him. He had been right of course in the end, it was pitifully small, too small to really suit her purposes—not, that Alys had ever admitted this to Selendrile. Instead she had tried hiding it away hoping Selendrile would forget about it, but her attempt to locate a roll of twine in her rapidly growing pile of possessions in order to tie a particularly stubborn piece of her basket down had unearthed the tin kettle. In the end not only had the twine been unsuccessful, but Selendrile had also noticed the little kettle, a combination that gave him nearly endless entertainment and had resulted in Alys chasing him out of the room demanding he buy her a basket instead of laughing at hers. The basket nearly exploded during it's moments left unattended. And then it became firewood.

Alys stood up and walked over to the kettle, picking it up to stare at it. Maybe what she needed was closure. Maybe a little bit of closure would help with the nightmares, the guilt.

She remembered back to when her best friend Risa had died, and she had cried inconsolably. Finally her father took her for a walk and stopped at a large fallen over oak, lifting her up and sitting her down on the tipped over trunk. He joined her and she saw that from there, they had a perfect view of a little stream as it dipped down a tiny little waterfall out of their view. He cleared his throat and then awkwardly launched into his speech, which she could tell from the awkward way he was delivering, had been the result of much planning beforehand. "You know sunshine, we can't stop things from happening anymore than that water can stop flowing. Maybe some of that water is afraid of going down that little fall, or maybe some of it misses this peaceful section up here and longs to be back, but it has to keep flowing. And you know what? It makes it past that rough patch just fine, and it can go on to find new wonderful sections of the creek."

Alys had responded something along the lines of, "Daaaaaad water doesn't have feelings."

But he had just hushed her and kept talking. "We have to be like water Alys, we can't stop time. Bad things will happen but we just have to keep going anyways. But just because we keep moving, doesn't mean that the past isn't part of us, it just has a new place. When your mother died Alys, I didn't know what to do, I didn't know how to keep going. And for awhile there, it seemed like everyday was gray and dreary and nothing would ever be right again. And then the midwife got mad and told me she couldn't stay around forever to help me with you and shoved me towards your crib where you lay crying. And I didn't know what to do, so I thought, what would your mother have done? So then I sang you a lullaby. You know the one- you are my sunshine, my only sunshine… and when I sang it and looked at you I realized something. That while I had lost something, life kept giving me things to live for if I just looked for them. And while your mother had left me, she didn't really leave, because nothing could ever make me forget her, she would always be a part of me. Sometimes I would talk to her when I didn't know what to do with you. Or sometimes I would talk to her when I was so happy with you that I had to share it with someone. Maybe you could try talking to Risa?"

Alys smiled down at the cup. Yes talking to Risa had helped her a lot. She had talked to Risa for several years in fact, until finally she had gotten so old that talking to the memory of an eight year old didn't make much sense. Alys took a deep breath.

"Alright father, let's give you something that you deserve. Something that I should have given you a long time ago. I think I'm finally ready now to start moving down the stream again."

Alys looked down at the two sticks she had stripped the bark off of with a knife. They didn't look quite ready yet… ah, the ends. They should have pointed ends, not messy jagged ends from where she had broken them. Alys popped another chunk of cheese in her mouth, the cheese having mysteriously reappeared by this morning, and went to work attempting to carve the ends of each stick into a point. Her arm felt incredibly tired. All this had been incredibly slow work—hiking down the mountain, finding a suitable place, finding suitable branches, removing their bark and so on.

Alys jerked when she heard a rustle in the woods and her knife slipped gouging her other hand. Alys yelped and immediately stuck her hand in her mouth to suck up the blood, but it was bleeding quite a lot. She took it back out with a sigh, realizing that it was no use, she needed a bandage. She picked up the knife she had dropped and attempted cut off a strip of cloth from her dress. Once she had it started she tried to simply rip it the rest of the way, but then it ripped a little too easily.

"Oh drat," Alys muttered. She picked up the knife yet again, trying to salvage the bandage. The dress might be a lost cause at this point. But right as she was trying to cut the strip away she heard yet another rustle, and jerked once again, and cut herself yet again, this time on her leg beneath the piece of fabric she was trying to cut.

"Oh flaming rat scat!" Alys muttered even more angrily. She looked around trying to see if she could identify where the rustling was coming from, but the woods looked perfectly ordinary. Alys peered down at her leg, and deemed the cut shallow enough to not warrant a bandage. She wrapped the strip of cloth that had come at the expense of her dress and leg around the palm of her hand, and messily tied it there with her teeth and other hand. She frowned down at the knife and stuffed a piece of dried fruit in her mouth before picking it up again and braving the wood whittling again.

After some time she finally got the ends of each stick pointy and set to finding a place in the little clearing where the dirt was soft enough for her to push the end of the longer stick into the ground. After finally finding a spot and struggling with the stick for some time she finally got it securely in the ground more or less straight. Alys stood back surveying it for a second before heading back to grab her basket of food and supplies and bringing them over to her new location. Then she knelt down in front of the stick and started tying the second stick across it with the twine so that it formed a cross. When she finished she took out the little kettle and placed it at the bottom, removing the top and tossing it to the side. Then she poured a little of her water from her flask into the kettle and stuffed all the wildflowers she had managed to find into the kettle.

Alys sat back and stared at the little memorial for a long time before she finally spoke. "Well here you go father, I hope you like it. I know it's not the best, and if Selendrile had made it, it would've looked twice as nice and would have taken half the time… but I made it all by myself so I'm sure you'll like it, right?"

Alys paused finding that she had to clear her suddenly tight throat. "I'm sorry I haven't visited your actual grave. I… I don't really know where it is. And I'm afraid of going back… I mean I know if I go back at night no one will notice but, but I'm still afraid. Sometimes I still feel like a child father, and I just want you here to comfort me and tell me everything will be alright. I feel like I'm scared of everything without you-" Alys broke off to wipe her nose and eyes.

"I've done a lot of bad things since you left me. I didn't really realize it at the time, but they were still wrong. Can you forgive me? There's a lot of people that can't forgive me and…and maybe they shouldn't. But I can live with them hating me. But I can't bear to think of you being disappointed in me. Can you forgive me? I've been trying to be better. I want to make you proud of me again. Do me a favor and never watch me when I attempt basket weaving though," Alys said with a sad little laugh, that sort of turned into a hiccup due to her crying.

"Goodness, I feel alone…" she whispered. Alys reached forward and absentmindedly stroked the kettle.

"I wonder what you would have thought of Selendrile if you met him father. Ha, probably wouldn't have approved. He's good to me though, even if I can't tell how he feels about me. Maybe he doesn't care about me at all, but he does keep me safe so that's good right? Look!" She said gesturing to herself. "Look, I've finally gained some weight! Remember when I used to give you nearly all the food while you were sick and insisted I wasn't hungry? You always saw through it, I tried so hard but you always saw through it…. But if I keep gaining weight like this I'm not going to be able to pass as a boy anymore. Which I'm sure you're pleased to hear," Alys reflected with another sob laugh. "Funny scrawny peasant girl with the short hair…."

Alys head jerked up as she saw movement in the corner of her eye. Suddenly all the rustling made sense, for standing about five feet away from her was a scraggily looking dog eyeing her. It stood at a height a little higher than her knees, with wire like grey hair which stuck up in all directions and with white hairs on it's muzzle making it look almost bearded. Judging from it's weight, the dog was a stray. Alys slowly reached into her basket and tossed a small piece of cheese over to it. The dog ate it, and took another hesitant step towards her. Alys threw a little piece of meat over to it, and the dog took another step towards her. Finally she got the dog to walk all they way up to her and fed it pieces of the rabbit out of her hand.

"See you like my rabbit, it isn't so bad is it?" The dog gave her a look at that comment.

"Hmm," Alys said stroking his oily fur as the dog sat down in front of her, staring into her face in that wise way that only dogs seemed to have mastered. "Are you alone too?" Alys asked it softly, her nearly dried eyes suddenly threatening to overflow again.

"Don't worry so am I. I don't think there's anyone left who loves me either. I have a dragon who thinks I'm funny. But he's not too good on the affectionate feeling front. But I won't make you be friends with him. Just the two of us can be friends, eh?" Alys said to it, scratching it behind the ears. The dog came forward a little to lick her face and Alys leaned forward to hug it. "We can love each other can't we?"

After many more treats Alys had successfully gotten the dog, now named Scampers for the time being, to fetch almost 50% of the sticks she threw for him. Scampers didn't exactly bring any of them back to her, but it was a work in progress. After awhile she went down to the creek and attempted to get scampers in the water for a bath, but that attempt had failed miserably, mostly just resulting in her falling in the creek face first while Scampers scampered out of the creek. No wonder Scampers was so oily.

Finally Alys walked back to the clearing tossing Scampers, who now loyally followed her everywhere, the last of her rabbit and blew a kiss to her fathers memorial site before heading back towards the cave. Scampers followed her all the way up to the side of the rocky mountain before Alys had the heart to try chasing Scampers off. A dog which wandered into Selendriles cave was a dog that wandered into his stomach. Alys climbed up several meters before she had the heart to look back down at the scruffy dog standing in the shadows below.

"I'll be back tomorrow," she whispered before turning to head back up the mountain side. By the time she reached the cave the sun had set, and she was shivering in her wet dress. As she entered the cave she heaved a sigh and headed into her room. She felt completely and utterly worn out. There had been too many emotions today. Along with too much walking, too much throwing and whittling, and too many injuries. Alys paused for a second when she realized that Selendrile was already in her room sitting by the fire as if it were his room. Well, she admitted, it was his cave. Alys continued over to the wall were she stored the basket and set it down, picking out the last of the bread and headed over to the food basket to place the remains in.

"I couldn't help but notice a certain basket is missing today. Did it perhaps turn into a shapely basket and I simply don't recognize it anymore?" Selendrile asked conversationally.

Alys snorted. "I suspect you didn't notice it because it is now beautiful shapely ash. Burned wonderfully," Alys replied heading over to the fire to warm herself.

Selendrile finally looked up at her, taking in her appearance. "Bathing I think works best if you actually _clean_ yourself, not just roll around in the water," he finally said. "And I know you seem to think one should always cover themselves but it seems to me it'd be easier to bathe if you took your dress…" Selendrile broke off as he eyed the bottom of her dress, which was in tatters and had a few leftover blood stains on it.

"I know how to bathe properly, Sel," Alys snapped, thrusting her hands towards the fire.

"Sel?" he echoed sounding confused. But he quickly forgot about it as he noticed her hand. He reached forward and snatched her hand by the thumb pulling it over to him to eye it more carefully. "What did you do to yourself?" he asked, sounding far more curious than concerned.

"I didn't do it purposely! I just had an accident," Alys protested. "Or two… or three," she finished up weakly, shaking his hand off of hers.

Selendrile shrugged and went back to staring at the fire. They sat in silence for a little while before Selendrile finally asked, "Your hands not going to fall off is it?" Alys refused to warrant this with a response, she just couldn't be bothered in her current mood. "You humans are so fragile," he continued, apparently determined to keep the conversation going despite her lack of willing participation. Half the time she didn't even see him, he just left food or supplies for her, and the other half of the time was divided between a hovering yet uninterested presence and an annoyingly friendly presence. Today and yesterday apparently were both going to fit in the later category.

"I'll clean it out with some of that alcohol and re-bandage it before my hand falls off," Alys finally muttered back. She stood up and shuffled over to her belongings where she fished out a clean but tattered sheet which she had been using for spare cloth, and the alcohol. She knelt down and removed the bandage, eying the nasty gash across her palm. What had she done to herself indeed? Alys opened the alcohol bottle and began to move to pour it on her hand but paused at the thought of how much it was going to burn. And how much dabbing it with a section of the clean cloth was _not_ going to make it feel better. She glanced up over at Selendrile who was still by the fire but facing her now. He raised an eyebrow at her but said nothing. Alys looked back down at her hand.

"Something wrong?" Selendrile finally inquired.

"No, nothing, just preparing myself is all."

Silence again. Eyebrow went up again.

"It IS painful you know," Alys snapped.

"Ah, so you require some assistance then?"

When Alys didn't reply immediately he gracefully stood up and walked over to where she was and knelt down in front of her. He took hold of the fingers of her outstretched injured hand and paused to look at her. Alys blinked at him in response. Then he took the bottle and carefully poured a steady stream onto the palm of her hand. Alys instinctively tried to yank her hand away as it started stinging but Selendrile firmly held her hand as he reached over to pick up the cloth and gently began dabbing the wound, sopping up all the blood dirt and alcohol. He paused to examine her hand briefly before letting go and proceeding to easily rip a strip of cloth off the sheet for a bandage. Then he turned back to her hand and began wrapping the strip around her hand, finishing it up with a knot that was just tight enough to apply pressure without hurting. When he finished he looked up at her, his expression unreadable. With some difficulty Alys managed to finally swallow and blink again, you know, to do something other than stare at him wide-eyed, and managed a, "Thank you."

Selendrile rewarded her with a curt nod, but didn't move away. He just sat there staring at her with that unreadable expression that Alys had hoped she would eventually be able to read, but thus far had not succeeded. Finally he broke the silence with, "I thought perhaps you could try your hand at gathering your own food. I brought back a book with edible plants in it."

Alys felt her cheeks grow hot, not wanting to admit to Selendrile that she couldn't read. But he continued on before she had to reply. "It has detailed pictures that should make it easy enough. And perhaps we could work on getting you a small garden. It would help pass the time even if you prove to be a terrible farmer."

Alys considered this before nodding. She wasn't sure where his sudden desire to have her take charge of her own diet came from, but she had to admit it made sense. Since she had been with Selendrile, the only one of her needs that she had taken charge of herself was her water supply. And while she had tried taking up other tasks to pass the time, such as her most recent attempt at basket weaving, she had to admit she had a lot of free time.

"Could you bring some more meat? The rabbit is all gone."

"Already? I didn't think you ate that much."

Alys shifted uncomfortably. "I was hungry today," she replied defensively. As was a certain dog which she didn't feel too inclined to tell Selendrile about.

"I'll bring you something by the morning then," he replied after a moment of silence. Alys sat there awkwardly in front of him, unable to think of anything to say back. Instead she tried to look anywhere but at him. Alys suddenly broke the silence with, "I'm sort of tired today… I didn't sleep well and had a kind of rough day so…."

Selendrile stared a little more, and surprised her with, "Are the nightmares back?"

Alys paused a second before shaking her head. "They never really went away."

"Ah." Silence. And then Selendrile surprised her again. "Would you like me to stay with you until you fall asleep?"

Alys was so taken aback by his proposal that at first she couldn't formulate any thoughts other than 'huh?' She wasn't convinced that she would have nightmares tonight given how tired she was and her new steps towards closure—at least closure over her father and the not being alone bit. She also wasn't convinced that having Selendrile there would alleviate the nightmares any, given that she had had a great number of them in his presence but….but it was just so uncharacteristically sweet of him to offer that she found she really didn't want to refuse. "Uhh… sure, I mean yes, yes that would be nice."

Selendrile studied her for a second more before standing up. "I'll let you get changed then," he stated as he walked a short distance away and stood with his back facing her.

"Uhh… would you mind, just leaving for a second?"

Selendrile shook his head, but left her room. Alys grabbed a nearby dress and quickly began changing into it, knowing from experience that if she forced him to leave he only gave her a certain amount of time before returning, regardless of where she was in the changing process. Selendrile of course returned as she was lacing up the bodice, never quite waiting until she was fully changed. He walked straight over to her bed and sat down against the wall directly beside it. Alys paused a moment and then climbed into bed situating herself among the skins and blankets. When she looked back up at him he was just sitting there staring off at the far wall, apparently have no other intentions than to sit there idly until she fell asleep. Not very comforting, but still sweet, Alys thought.

"Good night, Selendrile."

He turned his head slightly in her direction and replied softly, "Good night."

Alys smiled slightly before rolling over and burying further into her bed, staring at her bandaged hand for a little before closing her eyes. _Maybe we can be friends after all _was her last thought before drifting off to sleep.


	3. Chap 3: Risa

**Finding What's Eternal**

* * *

Chapter 3

* * *

Alys woke up feeling quite a bit more jolly than usual—like a burden had been lifted from her shoulders. "Right," she said as she wandered around the room picking up items she would need for trip out of the cave. "It's a new day father, and I'm going to keep trying to move further down the stream. No stagnating. I'm going to learn new things," she said as she plopped the book down in her bag, "I'm going to keep talking to you, I'm going to find my dog again, I'm determined to make Selendrile and I actual real friends, I'm going to eventually tackle that cooking thing again…" she trailed off as she looked around the room for the meat. Where was it? Had Selendrile not gotten her any after all?

With a frown Alys peered around the entrance to her room into the main part of the cave. Selendrile wasn't dozing there. "Hmm," Alys hummed uncertain for a moment. She headed into his room and wandered over to her 'meat room', abruptly stopping when she got there. Not only had Selendrile gotten her another rabbit, but he had prepared it as well, so that all that was sitting there were already cut up pieces of meat ready for cooking.

"Oh Selendrile," Alys whispered, touched by the gesture. Then a wave of guilt swept over her—perhaps she had taken the nightmare/bad day thing a little too far. It really hadn't been _that_ bad of a day, and everything that had gone wrong she had pretty much brought on herself. But then it occurred to her that maybe part of the reason he had gone ahead and prepared it for her was because he thought she was incapable of preparing it herself….the wave of guilt was gone.

Alys bundled up the entire sheet and rabbit and headed back to her room for Cooked Rabbit Attempt #2. Cooked Rabbit Attempt #2 ended up notably more edible than Cooked Rabbit Attempt #1, but there was definitely still room for improvement for the hypothetical Cooked Rabbit Attempt #3. Alys sighed as she packaged up some scraps for Scampers, wondering what exactly she should do for Attempt #3. There had to be something she was doing wrong…_Oh well_, she thought, _at least the only person that will ever know I can't cook rabbit is myself_. And potentially Scampers, if she ever found him again.

Alys heaved the bag on her back and headed down the mountain path. Once at the bottom she began wandering around looking for her little clearing. Locating it turned out to be far harder than she thought it would've, and by the time she finally found it her feet were aching. Alys immediately sprawled out on the ground near her father's memorial.

"Hi father, how are you? I'm tired. Why did I pick such a hard to find place to put your memorial? Oh, don't answer that, I already know the answer," Alys rambled. She sat back up long enough to grab a piece of bread to snack on, and then flopped back down. "Now the real question is how I find Scampers again. I doubt he'll come when I call him, I mean, I called him Scampers plenty of times yesterday, but I don't think that's quite enough for a dog to learn a new name. Perhaps walk around slowly and wave some rabbit around? He's probably still in the area and—SCAMPERS!"

After greeting Alys with a giant lick across her entire face, Scampers switched his interest to her bag, pawing at it and then looking over at her expectantly. Alys chuckled as she sat up, wiping her face with her sleeve. She opened the bag and tossed Scampers a little bit of rabbit. Scampers gobbled it up and then tilted his head at Alys waiting for more.

"Sit," Alys said experimentally. Scampers didn't move a muscle.

"Sit," Alys tried again with a more commanding tone. This time she was rewarded with a single tail wag. Alys stuck her foot out and prodded Scampers in the back with her foot, trying to push his hind end down. "Sit Scampers, sit!" Again, no success. Alys frowned and bent over to push Scampers into a sitting position. "Sit!"

Scampers hovered in a sitting position for a fraction of a second before popping back up. "Oh good enough," Alys grumbled tossing the dog another piece of rabbit.

This went on for awhile until Alys could get Scampers to sit about a quarter of the time. At this point Alys deemed the process a success, and went on to trying to get Scampers to shake hands with her. By the time she ran out of rabbit Scampers could 'sit' some of the time and had perfected his staring abilities, sometimes accompanied by a tilting of the head, for the command 'shake'.

At this point Alys decided to start looking for edible plants, and wandered around the area with her book, stopping to flip through the pages every time she ran into a different looking piece of vegetation. She wasn't sure how many hours it had been when she finally sat down next to a stream, with nothing to show for her efforts other than a few plants she already recognized, such as dandelion leaves and sour grass. She patted Scampers on the head, who after loyally following her around had settled down on the ground nearby.

"Well, that wasn't much of a success, was it?" she observed out loud. She looked around her surroundings and noticed an interesting looking mushroom patch on the opposite side of her from the dog. She leaned over, propping herself up on her elbows as she flipped through the pages of the book, peering at the mushroom.

"Aha! I think I found something!" Alys exclaimed, excitedly comparing the mushroom to the pictures on the page.

"I wouldn't eat that if I were you."

Alys jumped a little, swinging her head around to see where the voice was coming from. A young girl, stood on the opposite side of the creek with wild curly red hair, which was escaping the confines of her thick braid. She wore a simple, yet nice looking dress and had her arms crossed over her chest as she stared over at Alys.

"What?" Alys asked dumbfounded.

The girl rolled her eyes. "I said I wouldn't eat that mushroom."

Alys held up her book as she replied, "But it's in my book of edible plants…."

The girl scrunched her face up at Alys and hiked her dress up revealing dirty bare feet before sloshing across the creek. Once on Alys's side, she stomped her way up the slight bank and peered at the page the book in Alys hands was open too.

"Uh-uh, that's not the same one," she declared.

"What do you mean it's not the same one? It matches the picture perfectly!" Alys protested.

"Look lady, I'm telling you, it's not the same mushroom."

Alys glared at her before plucking a piece of one of them off and eying it. "I think it's alright," she said slowly glancing back down at the picture.

"Fine, do as you please. It won't be MY fault when you get sick," the girl stated matter of factly, plopping down on the ground next to Alys.

"Fine! I will," Alys retorted, throwing the piece of mushroom in her mouth, chewing and swallowing. "Who are you anyways?" she asked, moodily eying the cheeky little girl.

"Risa," the girl answered as she took the book from Alys hands without asking and began flipping through the pages. "This is a nice book," she observed with a nod. "How 'bout you? What's your name?"

Alys stared incredulously at the girl holding her book. She had had a friend once who went by the same name, and had died at about the same age as this child, but the Risa in her memory was far friendlier and sweeter than this child. She certainly wouldn't have plucked a book out of a strangers hand without first asking their name!

"Alys," she replied flatly after a brief moment of hesitation. How much could a sassy child get her in trouble if she found out who Alys really was? Maybe none, maybe a ton, Alys thought gloomily.

"Alys, your haircut is truly terrible. How 'bout the dog?" Risa asked without glancing up. Nope, definitely not like Alys's Risa. When Alys didn't reply promptly the girl looked up impatiently. "The dog—what's it's name?"

Alys took a deep breath, a tactic she employed when Selendrile was particularly ruthless in his baiting her, and closed her eyes for a second. _She's only a child, I can handle this_, she thought before popping her eyes open and looking back at Risa who had returned to the book. "I call him Scampers," Alys answered in as friendly of a tone as she could manage.

"Well now why would you go and call him that? That's such an un-imaginative name," the girl complained, finally handing Alys her book back and staring at her.

"It suits him. He's good at…scampering. Besides, I wasn't feeling too well the day I named him," Alys answered defensively.

"Like you won't be pretty soon either?"

"I'm telling you, the mushroom is fine!" Alys shot back.

The corners of Risa's mouth twitched upwards, and Alys realized suddenly that the girl was testing her. Baiting her and seeing how far she could push the limits, how much she could mess with Alys without leaving the joking realm. Alys shook her head, but found she was smiling a little now as well.

"How old are you? Why are you all the way out here by yourself?"

Risa shrugged. "Eight. I can do whatever I want to do, no one cares enough to stop me," She answered simply enough. "And you? Where did you come from? I haven't seen you before. And why IS your hair so awful?"

Alys reached up and ruffled her own hair while thinking just what she _could_ tell this girl. "Same," she finally settled on. "No one cares enough to stop me from going where I want. The rest, my friend, is none of your business."

Risa's eyes widened slightly at the word friend, but she quickly recovered. So quickly, that if Alys hadn't spent so much time with Selendrile over the past 2 months she doubted she wouldn't have even noticed the slight falter in the little girl's expression. Risa gave Alys an appraising look before saying, "Suits me just fine. I can help you with your hair if you want. It's going to stay looking ugly as it grows out if you leave it. It's too long for the original cut."

Alys watched the girl carefully before choosing her response. The girl's demeanor had changed slightly so that now instead of sounding aggressive she sounded carefully uninterested. A sure sign that she did in fact, care what the response was. Risa had picked up the book and was absent mindedly flicking through the pages again.

"Maybe later, but not today," Alys replied carefully, not sure she trusted an eight year old with her hair. Especially an eight year old with tons of curly long hair. She had to admit though, the girls assessment of her hair matched her own thoughts about the topic. The girl paused a moment as Alys replied, and then continued flipping through the book.

Alys snapped her fingers in front of Scampers and then patted the ground between her and Risa. "Scampers, over here!"

The dog grudgingly climbed over Alys body and went to where Alys had indicated. "Scampers, meet Risa. Risa, meet Scampers," Alys said in a mockingly formal tone. "He can shake your hand if you like," Alys suggested.

Risa put the book down and turned to Scampers. She glanced up at Alys, and then straightened her back and held out her hand. "How do you do Scampers?"

Scampers stared at her.

"It's still a work in progress," Alys informed Risa, poking Scampers from behind. The dog didn't respond. Risa looked at Alys with a guarded expression for a second, but then she suddenly dropped her defenses and let out a giggle. "Try getting him to sit instead," Alys suggested.

Risa obliged. And Scampers wagged his tail. Alys frowned and poked Scampers' hind leg. Still no sitting, but Scampers did lounge forward to attack Risa's face with his tongue. Risa giggled again, feebly trying to push the dog away. Alys giggled and patted Scampers's back. "Good boy Scampers, show Risa how much you like her, that's a boy! Practically the same thing as sitting!"

"This… is why… your dog… stinks at fol…lowing commands!" Risa managed to screech in between giggles and licks.

"I have no regrets."

Risa finally freed herself from Scampers attack of loving kisses and began scrubbing her face with her dress. Suddenly Alys stomach started churning uncomfortably. And she felt very hot. Very hot indeed. But her hands felt cold and clammy.

"Uh-oh," she whispered before leaning over and wretching. Risa thumped her on the back a couple of times.

"Told ya," she gloated. "Perfectly fine mushroom you said. Yup, looks like a perfectly fine mushroom it was."

Alys would've replied with a snarky comment, but instead she ended up hurling again, which made Risa laugh gleefully while she thumped Alys's back a few more times. "Hey! Your ugly hair came in handy—it's too short to get in the way when you upchuck!"

Alys swatted her away impatiently as she crawled over to the creek and splashed her face with the cool water. As she was rinsing her mouth out Risa came over to her waving the book around carelessly. "You know, I might not know a lot of what's in this book, but I do know more edible stuff than dandelion leaves and sour grass. I can show you."

Alys looked up suspiciously at Risa. "Alright," she conceded. "But if you feed me something that makes this happen again, I'm going to give you an equally ugly haircut."

Risa smiled back mischievously. "Deal."


	4. Chap 4: A Bad First Impression

**Finding What's Eternal**

Chapter 4

* * *

Risa had led Alys around showing her various edible plants for a couple more hours, occasionally trying to stuff one or another into Scamper's mouth. After awhile Scamper's learned to maintain a safe distance away from Risa whenever she knelt over a plant. When Risa deemed her tutorial over after finding Alys eleven other edible plants, they ended up heading back to Alys clearing, and thus back to the food supply. Alys had perhaps none-to-wisely promised Risa earlier she could get Scampers to shake with her at least once with the help of food. And the problem with making promises with children was that they never let you forget them.

After what seemed like ages later, a few successful sits and one successful shake was executed by Scampers and Risa bid farewell to Alys with her characteristic level of sass and insults. Alys shook her head as she watched the child take off into the wilderness, heading off to wherever she came from. Alys stood there a moment before a sudden thought struck her.

"Shoot! Possum knuckles!" Alys exclaimed, smacking herself in the forehead. The sun was already set, and the light was about to rapidly vanish from the area. How had she not noticed? That silly child had been so distracting that it didn't even occur to her to think of the time. Alys stared forlornly up at the mountain off in the distance. It was no use. Even though she could probably make it up the side of the mountain in the dark, it would be dark before she could reach the mountain. And there was no way that Alys could make it to the mountainside in the dark.

Alys heaved a sigh. No, it was best to stay where she was, rather than risking getting irrevocably lost. "Well, it looks like it's just you and me and this clearing tonight Scampers." Alys shook her head again, and lightly hit her forehead a few more times before beginning to collect firewood around the edges of her clearing. Every once in awhile she would throw a branch for the dog to fetch, but as she had come to expect, the dog just ran after it and eventually wandered back whenever it pleased him, without the stick. Alys dumped her load between the edge of the clearing and her father's cross and picked up a rock. She began digging at the ground with the rock, pulling up the grass to create a clearing for her fire, vaguely wondering whether if she got a fire going, Selendrile would notice it and come find her. She wiped the cold sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand and took off her shawl—pulling up the grass was hard work. She threw another stick for Scampers and he took off into the woods to not find the stick, and Alys went back to digging her fire pit.

Suddenly the area seemed to grow even darker, and Alys glanced up to see a large shadow swoop across the sky. Alys scooped up another stick and hurled it into the woods as far as she could, hoping that the stick would provide enough distraction to keep the dog from coming back. Alys turned back around just as Selendrile dropped to the ground in human form.

"Ahhhh," Alys said as she quickly covered her eyes, and reached down to grab her discarded shawl. She tossed it in Selendrile's general direction, and waited a moment before hesitantly peeking through her fingers. Confirming that he had covered himself, she dropped her hand. "How did you know I was here?"

Selendrile shrugged. "Just happened to see you. Where you planning on spending the night here?" he asked, indicating at her wood pile and make-shift fire pit.

"Uhh…." But that was all Alys managed to get out in reply before there was a sudden rustling in the woods, and Scampers came crashing out of some nearby bushes, proudly brandishing the stick she had just thrown a minute or so before. The dog slowed when it noticed Selendrile, or his scent, or whatever it was that tipped off animals that fey were near, and slowly approached Alys from behind. Scampers dropped the stick at her feet and with a low growl peered at Selendrile from around Alys's skirts. Alys gaped down at the dog, whom had _finally_ succeeded in fetching, at the _worst_ possible time, before glancing back up at Selendrile.

He raised his eyebrow at the sight and then slowly said, "So yesterday you were very hungry…."

Alys snapped her mouth shut again with an audible click. "I can explain," Alys said quickly. "You see yesterday I came across the dog by chance, and I was feeling a little lonely at the time, so I figured, why not? And so I started playing with him, and he looked so hungry, he's clearly a stray and so I gave him some rabbit and that's how I ended up falling in the stream yesterday. I mean, not from feeding Scampers the rabbit—from trying to bathe him, and then today I found him here again, and so…." Alys broke off when she noticed Selendrile's expression. Which was looking a little… well, dark.

"I wasn't asking about how you found the dog Alys."

Alys floundered for a moment. Well, what had he been asking then? And why was he looking so unfriendly at the moment? Alys swallowed. "Can I keep him?" she asked in a rush. "Look, I've already taught him some tricks! Stop growling, Scampers. Now sit! Sit Scampers. Ummm, I swear he knows that one. Sit! Sit. Sit. Um…well how about shake then? Shake! Shake Scampers shake!" Alys glanced back towards Selendrile flustered.

"Impressive," he remarked dryly.

"No really, he does know them… can I keep him Selendrile? Please? You're good at hunting, a dog won't require too much extra food—please?" Alys had taken a step closer to Selendrile as she pleaded and immediately regretted it, for now she could make out his eyes. They had the cold gleam in them that she had come to recognize as a warning sign that he was about to lose his temper. That or switch into the merciless, very dragon like Selendrile. Alys fought the urge to shrink back, wondering whether she should remain silent or try to mediate the situation. She hadn't exactly expected him to welcome the dog with open arms, but she hadn't expected _this_ response either. Just _what_ was upsetting him? Selendrile had made it clear that while he could interpret and even display his own human emotions that he didn't understand them. It was at times like this though, that Alys found herself wondering if he understood human emotions and their motivations better than she would ever be able to interpret his. Every time she thought she understood him and could predict his responses, something like this would happen and Alys would have no idea what she did wrong.

"Please…?" Alys asked again in a whisper.

Selendrile studied her in silence for a moment, while Alys stood perfectly still, trying to ignore Scampers's growls in the background, and to look at him back; only, she found she couldn't quite meet his eye. The cold gleam disappeared as quickly as it had come and Selendrile nodded stiffly.

"Thank you!" Alys burst out. Suddenly filled with lots of nervous energy, she waved her arms around a little unsure what to do before turning to the dog and grabbing hold of it's sides. "I'm sure Scampers will get used to you soon-" she paused as she shoved the dog forwards towards Selendrile with great effort, "—enough." Scampers's incessant growling turned to desperate whining as Alys succeeded in shoving him marginally closer to Selendrile.

Selendrile on his part eyed the dog with mild distaste and continued to stand there motionless. "Well," Alys said a little breathlessly as she let go of dog, allowing it to retreat safely behind her skirts again, "that may take a little time." Then she suddenly strode forward and hopped up a little to wrap her arms around Selendrile's neck to give him a quick squeezing hug. He lifted his arms away from his sides slightly, as if to return the embrace, but didn't actually. "Really, thank you Selendrile," she said quietly before quickly pulling away.

Alys reached down to her wood pile and drew out a stick and threw it for Scampers, who toke off after it even before she threw it. "Let's give the poor dog's nerves a break for a little, eh?" She said a little weakly, turning back to look at Selendrile.

His only response was a slight upwards nod. Alys cleared her throat. "Well I guess now that you're here I can get back to the cave after all. I'll uh, get my stuff back together."

As Alys bent down to re-stuff her belongings into the sack Selendrile asked, "Why do you need a dog?" He asked in such a way that his tone revealed nothing about his emotions.

"Well I don't _need_ a dog, I just want him," Alys replied. "I don't know, I guess dogs just make people happy."

"By giving them something to amuse them?"

The question hadn't been asked harshly, if anything it had been asked curiously, but for some reason it sent chills down Alys back. "No…it's just nice to have something to love, and to have something to love you back. For you, no matter who you are. Or what you do."

"Un-conditional love?"

Alys paused for a moment to sort out the unfamiliar word. In addition to being able to adopt an amazingly human persona, Selendrile had also developed the ability to use words which Alys was unfamiliar with. She wasn't sure where he was picking them up from, but wished he would stop. His rare gaps in knowledge about human society, often about the strangest things given how insightful he could be about other things, were about all that were left to remind her that she had once been the one in power knowledge wise. Well, in knowledge about human society that was. "Yes," she decided standing back up, the sack now fully packed.

Selendrile glanced over at her fathers memorial. "Oh, that kettle stays there," Alys informed him, guessing what he was thinking. Selendrile looked at her questioningly. Alys walked a few steps closer to the memorial, and knelt down in front of it.

"It's a memorial," she explained. "For my father. I don't really know where his grave is, so I made this. A sort of place, to you know, honor him, remember him, talk to him…."

"You miss him," Selendrile stated as he came over to sit beside Alys, looking over her handiwork. He poked the cross, probably checking how well made it was, and to Alys relief it didn't wobble to badly.

"Of course. I loved him, and he was my whole family—what with mother dying giving birth to me, and one uncle dying of plague, another in a carriage accident, one from a snake bite as a child, grandfather from a heart attack, the other from falling through some ice into a pond, grandmother from food poisoning, the other from childbirth, my aunt from childbirth, my cousin from childbirth…. Well you get the point."

"And making this, talking to it and putting flowers in the kettle, makes you feel better?" Selendrile asked sounding genuinely confused. Ah, there it was. A strange gap in knowledge over something that even young children would understand.

"Yes," Alys replied hesitantly, not sure how to explain grieving to him. "It's a physical reminder of them, a mark, a place that's theirs even when they can no longer be here. By giving them a place it helps you move on in your own life… with the comfort of knowing that you can never forget about them. Comfort in knowing that you can try honoring them and I don't know… talking to them like they were still here…." Alys rubbed her forehead, struggling for words, sure that she wasn't explaining this well. "Don't dragons grieve? Or do they just grieve differently?"

Selendrile considered the question for a moment. "When something's gone, it's gone," he replied simply.

"But… what about loved ones? How can you just move on from loving something?"

Selendrile shook his head. "Love is primarily a human emotion. Dragons waste little energy on it."

Alys felt like she had been punched in the stomach. Of course she knew he didn't _have_ human emotions. Of course she did. The little nagging voice inside her head often reminded her of this, it wasn't like this was a surprise. It was just different finally hearing the words come from his mouth. Besides, she didn't love Selendrile. He just meant a lot to her because he was all she had, right? Was his inability to love why he asked her about her desire to have a dog? Or why he thought the dog could only be wanted for amusements sake? Oh god, did he only want her for amusement? Well she _had_ sort of expected that all along….

The back of Selendrile's fingers brushing against her arm for a few seconds brought her out of her thoughts with a jump. "You're cold," he said standing up. "Perhaps we should go back now, unless you would like more time with that?" he asked indicating the cross.

Alys shook her head and popped up after him, firmly pushing her previous thoughts to the back of her mind.


	5. Chap 5: Resurfacing past

**Finding What's Eternal**

Chapter 5

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A/N: Thank you for reading up to this point! Sorry these chapters took so long, I had the beginning and the ending of this story well planned out, it's the whole middle that's a little rough. Anyways, feel free to comment, as I might have mentioned before (can't recall) this is my first fanfic, so any form of feedback is appreciated :)

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The days of the next week were uncharacteristically busy. For starters, Alys immediately tackled the dog's aversion to Selendrile, with marginal success. While she managed to get it inside the cave several times, the dog never seemed particularly comfortable in the cave and ran out like something possessed if Selendrile came back. Selendrile on the other hand seemed content to pretend the dog didn't exist, and Alys taking the hint, avoided mentioning the dog to him. He did however bring her more meat in order to provide for the additional stomach. This also took up a decent amount of Alys's time due to her ineptitude and queasy-ness at preparing meat, which increased once Selendrile started bringing back animals other than rabbits. After several of days of Alys not getting any better at handling them herself, Selendrile cut her off from his help, apparently suspecting her of purposely being bad at it in order to encourage him to take over for her. Alys didn't even bother trying to deny it.

Alys also diligently worked on her food collection skills, studying the books images and searching for the plants. She managed to find a few more edible plants on her own, but still was a long way off from finding the majority of the plants in the book. She did however manage to find enough vegetation to make a salad, complete with greens, a few root vegetables, some nuts, and a mashed fruit and honey dressing—a feat she was so proud of that after tasting it, she saved the rest to show Selendrile. Selendrile of course, couldn't understand her joy at having prepared something without any meat in it, but he dutifully told her she had done well, in such a way that she couldn't tell if he meant it mockingly, as an honest compliment, or if he was instead contemplating what his own next meal would be.

Alys ran into Risa a few more times that week, something which she highly suspected was planned on Risa's part. Risa was completely on board with Alys's developing survival skills mission, and convinced Alys to try her hand at fishing. Together they managed to catch several crayfish and even managed to successfully catch a small fish on their own. Alys had let the fish free though, unable to bear watching it suffocate, which resulted in Risa chasing her around with a stick calling her a 'sissy'. It was during one of these attempts at fishing that Alys seeing her reflection in the water, finally broke down and agreed to let Risa cut her hair. When Risa showed up the next day, she surprised Alys with a pair of rather sharp scissors. Between this and the rather nice, admittedly plain, dresses, Alys became convinced that Risa was actually from a fairly wealthy family. However, since Alys was unwilling to share details on her life with Risa, she didn't venture to ask why exactly it was that a wealthy child like Risa was allowed to run so wild, all by herself none the less.

Finally, it turned out Selendrile had indeed been serious about starting a garden. At first she had thought it was a fleeting fancy on his part since he didn't mention it again, but sure enough, a few days later he flew by her several times to grab her attention while she was perched up on rock and then flew off to go start her garden. He had picked a place for unknown reasons, which was not far from her clearing, and had set to clearing all the trees from it. He then dug up all the stumps and roots, and finally patted down all the upturned loose soil with his body. The whole thing had made so much noise that Alys was amazed Selendrile didn't wind up greeted by hoards of nearby townsfolk with pitchforks demanding a dragon hunt. Perhaps everyone just mistook it for an earthquake. The fear that Selendrile was going to expose himself wasn't so much that Alys didn't enjoy watching it all from her perch up on the mountainside though. It was truly amazing what he could do while a dragon. It hadn't looked hard for him at all to topple and dig up all those trees. In fact, what he reminded Alys of the most as she watched was a cat _playing. _

"Show-off," Alys muttered with a smile, as she stood up and began walking back to the cave.

She wasn't in the cave for long before she heard Selendrile enter, and then seconds later call out, "Are you ready to go to town?"

Alys's heart stopped. Well, it felt like that anyways. Town? Selendrile hadn't taken her to town since last month when they moved to the cave! Alys rushed out the entrance of her room into the main cave.

"Do you mean it?" she demanded excitedly, before realizing that Selendrile was not putting on cloths, rather gathering his cloths for her to carry, and thus was not wearing anything. "Ahhh-gghhh," Alys said, whipping around so that her back was to him again.

"We need to buy seed."

Alys clenched her fists and waved her arms in front of her in excitement, barely containing a little screech to go along with it. Selendrile came up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. Alys turned sideways as handed her his bundle of cloths. Alys automatically took them, all the while envisioning the joys of a town visit—all the noise, the buildings, the conversations with random friendly strangers, the wealthier merchants with brightly colored cloths…._Wait a second_, Alys thought, looking down at herself, _what cloths am I going to wear?_

Selendrile cleared his throat.

"Oh," Alys said glancing quickly over at Selendrile before feeling her cheeks get hot. "It just occurred to me that I don't know which gender to dress as. My hair's still pretty short but I'm not sure I can pass for a boy easily anymore…." She trailed off as she looked down at herself again.

"No, a boy might be hard for you now," Selendrile replied with mock thoughtfulness. Alys's head snapped back up as she turned it to see Selendrile, chin in hand, staring straight at her chest.

"Stop looking at me!" she squealed, clutching his cloths up to her chest defensively, before quickly retreating back to her room. Once in her room Alys began tearing through the chests of cloths which Selendrile had supplied her. One had primarily winter accessories, another cloths which Alys never saw herself wearing, and another had the majority of the cloths she did wear, or rather would wear. Surely there would be something in one of them… "Aha!" Alys said victoriously, pulling out a plain brown head piece. Not something that she typically wore, but was well within the norms of someone in her stature wearing. Alys quickly secured it on her head before rushing back out into the cave.

"Problem solved!" she exclaimed. Selendrile's response was to resettle his wings, whatever that meant in dragon body language, before brushing past her and heading out of the cave entrance. Clearly, he was not as impressed by her problem solving as she was. Alys shrugged and followed him out, dutifully standing in the middle of the nearest ledge with her arms held out in front of her. Selendrile's talons closed around her waist and suddenly the ground dropped away beneath her. Alys closed her eyes as Selendrile's steadily beating wings carried them upwards, then opened them again when he began effortlessly gliding across the sky. It was only a matter of minutes though before Selendrile was landing again.

Every time they flew, Alys thought it was the best flight yet, that there was no way she could ever feel so giddy again, but every time she was surprised once more. Alys stared up at the sky, marveling over the fact that just moments before she had been soaring through it. Selendrile nudged her, indicating that it was time to head out again.

"Are dragon's born able to fly or are they like birds and it takes them awhile?" Alys asked, still looking up at the sky as she walked.

"They have to learn how to fly," Selendrile replied, apparently deeming this an acceptable dragon topic. He was so unpredictable about what he would answer about dragons.

"How long does it take them?"

"A little while," was the vague, though pleasant enough response.

"Do they have scales or just skin?"

"Scales, but they're much softer than that of an older dragon."

"Do their colors change as they get older? Human hair often gets darker, and all babies are born with blue eyes."

"Yours changed to that color? My eyes have never changed color," he replied a little too innocently, not quite answering the question. Alys furtively glanced over at Selendrile, wondering how far she could push his 'forthcoming' mood.

"Do all dragons have hoards? I mean, do they all like …shiny things?" Alys asked, trying to ask the question with almost a polite disinterest, hoping to draw as little attention to it as possible.

From the corner of her eye she saw Selendrile eye her through the corner of his own. "I don't like shiny things. I like valuable things. When you have valuable things, you're less likely to find yourself in a disadvantaged situation. I can't eat _everything_ just to get my way you know."

Alys smiled. "Ah, well, from what I hear that tactic works rather well with knights and their horses and pages."

"Yes it does," Selendrile agreed, returning the smile. "But sometimes the armor can disagree with you"

"Ah, yes, I can see how that would be annoying."

"Quite."

An idea suddenly struck Alys. "So, seeing as you like your _valuable_ possessions, does parting with the money to support me… bother you?"

Selendrile eyed her again, more suspiciously this time. "No, I have…much," he replied, using exactly the same description of his hoard as he had the first time he told her about it.

"I see, well, just in case perhaps it's better you do the purchasing. Then you'll know exactly how much you're parting with, and won't risk losing any more than you want to," Alys suggested lightly. It was a weak argument she knew, but it was worth the effort anyways. Left to his own devices Selendrile was likely to do exactly what he always did: he'd guide her along and the second it came to accomplishing something he would disappear leaving a flustered Alys to handle it on her own. Which ordinarily wasn't an issue, but in this particular case she wanted to be able to explore the town, which to the best of her knowledge, she hadn't visited before. Besides if she bought the wrong things she was sure to be poked fun of by him. "After all, usually it is the man in charge of the farm, the er…"

"Sister," Selendrile supplied helpfully.

"Right, the sister would only be there to help."

"I see," Selendrile replied his voice as usual revealing very little about what he was actually thinking. He was just as likely to be thinking her argument made perfect sense as he was to be contemplating how long it had been since his last armor induced stomachache. Which was hopefully awhile ago—for the knight's sake, not Selendrile's stomach's sake.

At this point though they reached the town gates, and since it wasn't long after sunset, the guards opened the gate without either of them having to say anything. As soon as they entered Alys could tell it was one of the larger towns she had visited, since they were immediately greeted with the noise of people still doing exactly as they were before the sun had set. They followed the noise, and as they approached a still open market place Alys felt her skin prickle with excitement.

"Selendrile—Selendrile look! The markets still open after sunset!" Alys exclaimed, eyes scanning over the market in wonder as she grabbed Selendrile's sleeve and shook his arm excitedly.

"That's exactly why we are here."

Alys made a move to dart off into the crowd without Selendrile, but his arm wrapped around her shoulders before she could even get a foot away from him. "We're looking for seed, remember sister?" he reminded her sweetly, steering her towards a vendor who looked promising.

"Yes of course," Alys replied absent mindedly still looking around the market and surrounding buildings.

Selendrile initiated conversation with the vendor easily enough, but Alys didn't really pay attention to their conversation, only enough to occasionally chime in with useless statements like 'oh I see' or 'really' or 'is that so?' Eventually a cart with children toys in it caught her attention. She glanced at Selendrile to make sure he wasn't paying her any attention, and then when a group of people passed closely by them, Alys slipped into the back of their group, before cutting away from them to head over to the cart.

There were so many more types of toys here than she had ever seen growing up in St. Toby's. Alys eyes roamed over all of them, fascinated by what she had missed out on as a child. She noticed some small knitted animals and reached out to touch them.

"You like those?" the friendly man at the cart asked.

"Oh," Alys said quickly withdrawing her hand. She had forgotten about the vender. "Yes, they're quite cute. I haven't seen something like them before."

The vender put his hands on his hips and beamed at Alys. "Me wife makes 'em," he explained proudly. "Them quite simple once you know how to make 'em. See, the trick is to make them in bits, see?" He lifted up one of the stuffed animals and pulled it's head slightly away from the body, revealing that they were actually separate parts that had been sewn together with the same yarn they had been knitted with. "Stuff 'em some with wool, sew on button eyes, tie a bow 'round the neck—simple right?" he asked with a smile. Alys smiled back, reaching down to pick up one.

"They're so soft! I think I would have liked one of these as a child. I still do," Alys said with a little laugh, as she set the pig back down.

"One for ye children?" he asked a little hopefully.

Alys shook her head. Seeing disappointment spread across his face she quickly added, "I don't have any at the moment." And seeing as she lived by herself in a cave with a dragon, she wasn't very likely to have any at _any_ moment.

"Ah," he replied, the smile appearing on his face again, "Well maybe I'll see you again then?"

Alys couldn't help but smile back at the friendly man. "Of course. If I have a child, I wouldn't deny them one of these," she said picking up a chicken this time and waving it's wings around as she said it. "Have a nice night," she said as she put the chicken down and headed away, getting lost in the crowd. This time it was a tin vendor's cart that distracted her. She found she always had a weakness for them, a desire to look at all the products and mentally compare them to her fathers work. While he might have practiced in one of the smallest towns around, his work almost always was on par with the other vendors she looked at. Only his selection and quantity had suffered from being in a small village. Alys was so distracted by trying to assess the tin before she had reached the cart that she bumped straight into someone.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention…" she automatically blurted out before she even looked up at the person, drifting off once she actually did. It was a relatively tall man, who looked rather athletic. Despite wearing relatively simply styled clothing, she could tell from the high quality fabric and the regal way he held himself that he was a very wealthy man. That, and the jeweled cross hanging from his neck, which looked very familiar indeed.

"Never mind, these things happen," he dismissed quickly, apparently about to walk away before he noticed her staring.

"Are you quite alright?" he asked in an impatient, resigned voice.

"Uh… yes," Alys asked still unable to take her eyes from the necklace. "Sorry," she said shaking her head and looking up at the man's face, "I just have never seen such a beautiful cross before."

"Yes it is rather nice isn't it? Family heirloom," he answered briskly.

"Right, well have a good night then," Alys said awkwardly, wanting this encounter to be over.

"Good night," he replied with polite indifference. Alys took that as a sign she could flee the scene, but as soon as she turned to go he called after her, "Oh and girl, mind where you are walking before you get yourself in trouble."

Alys nodded in acknowledgement, and the man strode away, his long jacket floating behind him due to the speed he was walking at. There was something very wrong about that man. She just couldn't quite put her finger on what it was exactly, but something was wrong.

"There you are," a voice hissed in her ear.

Alys jumped about a foot in the air.

"What was that for?" Selendrile inquired taking a step back from her.

"Nothing, you just crept up on me that's all," Alys replied defensively.

"Come on, I got the seed while you were apparently standing here in the middle of the street like a statue. We should leave before it gets too late and they give us a hard time about opening the gate."

"Yeah, good idea," Alys said distractedly, already starting to walk towards the exit.

It wasn't until she was all the way back in her room for the night that she realized what was wrong with the man. It wasn't just his necklace that looked familiar, it was his face. He looked almost _exactly_ like Atherton, just with lighter hair and longer sideburns. Except she saw Atherton die.


	6. Chap 6: Some fun tea

**Finding what's Eternal**

Chapter 6

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A/N: As always, thank you for reading up to this point! Don't be surprised when the writing style suddenly changes at some point. It's on purpose- I promise it wasn't just me going weird on you :)

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Alys sat bolt upright with a gasp. She looked around the room, reassuring herself that she was in fact alone, before covering her face with her hands and taking a few calming breaths. It had been three nights since she had gone to town and every night since she had been plagued with nightmares primarily focused on Atherton. In this particular case, she had dreamed that he had come and found her in her room in the cave to exact his revenge.

Alys stood up and walked to the entrance of her room to peer into Selendrile's part of the cave. Surprisingly, he _was_ there, something which despite his apparent residence in the cave, was somewhat uncommon. He was sleeping, though this time he wasn't curled up like a cat as usual, but stretched out. Being stretched out as he was, his body took up the entire length of the cave, and consequently his head was very near the entrance. Alys stared at his head as she leaned against the wall. Should she tell Selendrile about Atherton's doppelganger? Seeing him had certainly shook Alys up, but she wasn't sure it was something Selendrile would deem all that important. Finding similar looking people was uncommon, sure, but it didn't really _mean_ anything. Besides, who's to say that it wasn't just her guilty conscience that made her _think_ the man looked like Atherton? Whether she liked it or not, that was a definite possibility. Perhaps even the most likely possibility. If that was the case though, it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. While it would indicate that Alys was still incredibly emotionally troubled over the past, it would also mean that there wasn't a real Atherton doppelganger walking around. Which in her opinion, would be a good thing.

But it wasn't just the physical resemblance which was troubling. The necklace had been almost _exactly_ the same as Atherton's. The only difference had been that instead of it having an amethyst, it had a blue topaz in it. And there was also the doppelganger's impatience and arrogance that reminded her of Atherton. If only the doppelganger had smiled. Atherton's smile was permanently ingrained in her memory—if this man had smiled it would have either been definite proof that they were not as similar as they appeared or it would have terrified Alys. But surely they would not have had the same awful smile, and Alys would not be as troubled as she was right now.

Selendrile's ear twitched, bringing her attention back to his sleeping form. Selendrile was aware of Alys's feelings on the whole Atherton incident, but they had never spoken of it since Alys had originally told him she was sorry that Atherton had died. Alys rather suspected that it was a sore spot between them, what with Alys intending to exact revenge on the man and then getting upset when she got what she wanted, not to mention the whole Atherton nearly killing Selendrile and it all being Alys fault bit. No, Alys decided, it was best to not bring up Atherton again to Selendrile. Not if it was just to tell him that she had found his doppelganger and it had scared her.

Alys watched Selendrile sleep for a few more minutes before turning to go back to her bed. With Selendrile sleeping like that there was no way anyone could get in her room without going through him first. And surely someone trying to get through Selendrile would wake her up. Taking comfort in this thought, Alys climbed back into her bed and attempted falling asleep again.

When Alys awoke the third time, it was about her usual waking hour. She prepared her usual pack of supplies and headed out to work on the little farm patch. Not far from the base of the mountain Scampers appeared out of some bushes and happily followed Alys to the stream. Once there, Alys located the bucket from within the depths of her bag and bent down to fill it.

"Where have you been the last four days?"

Alys let out a little shriek and jumped back from the waters edge, simultaneously dropping the bucket in.

Risa was sitting on the opposite side of the water a little further downstream. "Jeez Risa! If you were there the whole time don't you think you could have announced yourself a little sooner?" Alys demanded, attempting to fish her bucket back out of the water without getting any part of herself wet. "And you can't seriously expect me to believe you've looked for me every day the past four days either."

"My, my, my, aren't we cranky today?"

Alys raised an eyebrow at Risa, then initiated a new tactic for fetching the bucket.

"Jeez, don't beat the poor bucket with a stick, you're the one who threw it in there!"

This earned Risa a glare, before Alys returned to what she was doing.

"You got me! I didn't look for you a single one of those days, buuuut now I know you weren't around either?"

Alys smiled, and picked up the bucket that she had just whacked close enough to reach. Like any child, Risa couldn't handle being ignored, therefore making the best tactic for handling her, ignoring her. Alys dipped the bucket in the water and once it was full set it down long enough for her to throw her bag over her shoulder. "I have something to do today," Alys explained as she picked the bucket back up and turned to go. Almost instantaneously she heard feet splashing through water.

"What are you doing?" the girl asked breathlessly, running to catch up with Alys.

"Tending to my garden."

"You have a _garden_?"

"It's a work in progress," Alys answered as friendlily as she could given Risa's incredulous tone.

Risa snorted. "If it's anything like your 'work in progress' when it came to training good ol' Scampers here then it's never gonna happen."

Alys shoved the water bucket into Risa's hands. "Carry that for me if you want to see the garden."

"You always make me work," Risa complained after taking the bucket.

"I imagine if you had something better to do you wouldn't come find me in the woods all the time," Alys tactfully answered.

There was a slight pause before Risa picked up the chatter as if Alys hadn't said anything at all. "I suppose playing with you isn't too bad though. It's always rewarding when I get to witness something like you eating a bad mushroom, or slipping in the creek trying to grab a crayfish. What are you doing in your garden today?"

Alys smiled to herself. It hadn't escaped her notice that Risa had said 'playing with you' to describe their time together—ah how quickly that notion of 'work' had fallen out of favor once she challenged it. Though, once again she found herself wondering what exactly Risa's situation was. She certainly didn't play with strangers in the woods twice her age when she was a child. But instead of asking she just answered, "I'm watering it to try and get my seeds to sprout, planting my last bunch of seeds, and then making a sign for them."

Risa mulled this over before coming up with an adequately cheeky response. "Better let me carve the sign, your hand's still healing from the last time you tried using a knife."

"Excuse you!" Alys objected. "My hand is too healed! And I've used a knife plenty of times since then, every time I prepare my own me-" Alys broke off realizing that she probably shouldn't admit to not buying meat from a butcher, seeing as that would leave her open to questions she didn't want to answer. "Meals," she finished after a momentary pause. Alys couldn't tell if it was her imagination or if Risa really did give her a funny look.

"So how close are we?"

"Not too far now. I think." They walked primarily in silence the rest of the way, Risa only occasionally breaking it to chatter about something useless to either Alys or the dog. The little girl really wasn't all that picky about who she was talking to. After only three more 'how much longer's and one 'are we there yet' on Risa's part they finally arrived at the farm. Alys introduced the girl to all her future crops as they watered them, and then she sat the girl down with the sign and knife telling her the crop it was for.

"It's such an odd shape to carve on," Risa complained, indicating the wooden stake Alys had given her for the sign.

Alys looked down at it. It had worked for all her other signs. "Well, I know the signs not ideal, but you know what the food looks like right?"

"What it looks like?" Risa repeated a little blankly back at Alys.

"Yes, what it looks like. As long as you get something vaguely resembling it on that piece of wood it should be good enough for me to tell what the crop is. You do know what it looks like right?"

"Of course," Risa replied, blinking up at Alys. Then she shook her head and began her carving. Alys hovered long enough to ensure Risa seemed to know what she was doing before heading over to the freshly dragon-power upturned soil and began planting the last of her seeds. When she returned from her task Risa was still busy carving, so Alys flopped down beside her, glanced at the sign long enough to see it was going surprisingly well, and then laid down on the ground.

"You're not very happy today," Risa stated matter-of-factly without looking up from her work.

"I'm perfectly happy today," Alys replied, perhaps a tad too grouchily to be convincing.

"Liar."

"You're rude."

"At least I'm not a liar."

"I'm not a liar!"

"Sure you aren't. So are you going to tell me why you're unhappy?"

Alys opened her mouth to reply but then shut it again. Somehow Risa had come out on top in that little quibble. Why was it that all children were so good at manipulation? "If you must know, there are some things that happened in my past which I'm not very happy about, and something happened the other day which reminded me of it." There. That seemed sufficiently vague yet truthful.

"The past's the past. Get over it."

Alys glared over at Risa who was still carving away. And then shook her head.

"What?"

"Nothing. I was just thinking you might get along with someone I'm living with." If dragons liked children that was. Alys wasn't all that convinced that they would, but if they did, Selendrile and Risa could definitely agree on some things. Like their philosophy on life. And their philosophy on using herself for their entertainment.

"Someone you live with? Don't you live with your family?"

"My father died a short while ago, that's what that cross is for," Alys explained. "I live… with a friend now."

"Neat."

_What the heck…?_ Alys thought, staring over at the girl incredulously.

"My folks kicked the bucket so I live with someone else now too," Risa further explained in a tone that could have just as easily been used to describe the weather. Then she blew on the sign and shoved it in Alys face. "Whaduya think? Good huh?"

"You are quite good at carving," Alys genuinely complimented. Risa beamed and then jumped up to run over to the plot of land that the crop was in, and shoved the sign into the ground. She didn't quite stick it in the right place, but Alys figured it would be easier to just move it later, when Risa wasn't there to witness it.

"I'm not too familiar with this area, we should go explore," Risa announced upon her return, right before setting to putting Alys's belongings back into her pack. Alys shrugged. She stood up and accepted her pack back from Risa, following the girl as she strutted on ahead. As they walked along Risa babbled on about how they were a captain and a shipmate who landed on an unknown shore and were doing their duty to survey the land. Risa graciously allowed Alys to be one of the shipmates with no prior crimes. Risa of course, was the captain, presumably also without a history of murder or theft. This conveniently meant that everything Alys said held little weight, for it was the _captain_ who clearly made the decisions, and who clearly knew better about everything. Eventually they stopped though since the lowly shipmate pointed out that exploration meant nothing if they couldn't find their way back to their ship. Or cave rather. The captain restated this idea as their own, and declared it time for rest before they headed back.

Alys laid down at this point, declaring her sea legs needed a break from too much time on land, although to be honest, she was rather tired. A lack of sleep and tromping around in the wilderness endlessly didn't mix all that well. As she lay there she noticed a small weedy looking plant that she had never seen before and fished out her book. After aimlessly flipping through the pages, somewhat to her surprise, she found an entry that looked identical.

"Hey, I found something!" Alys said rolling up on her elbows to get a better look at the plant.

Risa took a break from trying to get Scampers to lay down on command and crawled over to where Alys was laying.

"Look, it matches. The book makes it seem like you dry the leaves over a low fire and then make a tea with them. Maybe that's why it's in this funny little section in the end of the book," Alys said thoughtfully, her finger trailing the pictures as she spoke.

"Funny section? Let me see," Risa said, grabbing the book away from Alys without asking. She looked over the page, and then flipped to the front of the section. Then she flipped back to the page, studied it a little more, before slapping the book shut and handing it back to Alys with a smile.

"You know, I think you're right. You should probably make that tea. It's starting to get mighty chilly at night. The tea would probably be _very_ nice. Go on, pick it," Risa ordered.

Alys eyed the plant thoughtfully one more time before shrugging. "As my captain says," she agreed, plucking the leaves off and sticking them in the little purse that she carried around in the pack.

Risa watched as she did this, then popped up. "Onwards to which we came!" she shouted with a dramatic thrust of her arm up in the air.

They headed back in the general direction from which they came, and eventually after much more aimless wandering than well thought out trekking they discovered the stream. It wasn't the part of the stream they were familiar with, but seeing as they had no idea where the garden was, or really had much of an idea of how to get from the garden to the part of the stream they were familiar with, they followed it. Right when Alys was starting to get concerned they finally came upon the familiar section. Risa happily pranced off onto her side of the stream with an "Enjoy your tea!" as Scampers took off excitedly after her. Seeing as the child left no time for Alys to respond, Alys just headed back to the cave. Once there she set to making her tea, making a meal for herself during the down time of drying. The meal finished before the leaves were fully dried, so Alys packed it away and set to mending an older dress which had gotten seriously damaged during her travels with Selendrile. The leaves dried before she had accomplished the extensive task and so she set that aside as well to brew the tea. The tea turned out to be unimpressive in every way. It took forever to brew and once it did it had a nondescript scent and flavor. But it was warm, and as Risa said, the nights were beginning to get quite cold, so flavor or not Alys enjoyed it. As she drank it she returned to attempting to salvage the old dress.

She was on her third cup of it when she decided she was bored. She felt warm and happy and sewing an old dress was not a warm and happy task. In a cave no less. A very nice cave, which conveniently suited the majority of her needs but still a cave. Bit drafty really. Not incredibly homey, or inviting. There had to be something that would make it more homey! Nope that was too hard to think about. Who makes a cave homey? No one. Caves weren't meant to be homey. Unless you were a dragon—speaking of dragons, where was Selendrile? It was dark out by now, so it was prime time for human form, and prime time for human form meant prime time for him to hang out with her. Where was he? If Selendrile were here maybe she'd be less bored. She liked hanging out with Selendrile. Even if he was ignoring her it was nice to have him around. Selendrile made her happy, and she was happy right now, so he should be there. Wait did that make sense? Yes that made sense.

Just then she heard Selendrile swoop into the cave. Alys ran out of her room and into Selendrile's part of the cave, practically bouncing with excitement. Selendrile regarded her for a moment before transforming. Alys turned her back and waited while she heard him go over to his cloths stash and pull out something to wear. She then counted off a few seconds to give him time to put some of it on, and then bounded over to him. Selendrile looked up from tying his pants, clearly surprised, just in time for Alys's tackle hug.

"Selendrile! What took you so long? I missed you!" Alys exclaimed, squeezing him in her embrace, ignoring the fact that her hug had pinned his arms down at his sides. She let go and beamed at him while he finished tying his pants while giving her an unreadable look. Tricky Selendrile, so hard to tell what he was thinking. As soon as he finished Alys grabbed his wrist and pulled him after her ignoring the fact that he hadn't had the chance to grab a shirt yet. "Come with me, I like being with you and I'm bored. I tried mending my dress but that was not very fun and it's a mess." Alys let go of his arm now that they were in the middle of her room and turned to face him with a smile. "So what did you do today?"

"What did _you_ do today?" Selendrile asked eying her curiously.

"Had a bunch of nightmares, got water, planted seed, became a shipmate who explored an unknown land, found a plant, got lost, followed the stream, came back, made dinner but haven't eaten that yet—why?"

"Is that all?" Selendrile asked very lightly, still giving her that curious look. Did she have something on her face? Oh well, too late if she did, no need to bother about it now.

"Oh and I made a tea. Would you like some?"

"Did you now?" Selendrile asked in that same light tone, walking over to pot. He lifted up the lid and sniffed.

"Oh it doesn't smell like much," Alys offered helpfully.

Selendrile put the pot down and walked back over to Alys. He bent down slightly and leaned forward to stare into Alys face intently. Alys just stared back. Goodness, his eyes were mesmerizing. They were so bright and such a lovely color. And _his face_. His face was just perfect. There was absolutely nothing about it which could be improved. And his hair! "You are _so pretty_ Selendrile," Alys said emphatically, still staring happily into his face.

"So you've told me before… your eyes are dilated."

"Are all dragons so pretty when they're human? Or are you just _especially_ attractive? Because you are _very_ good looking. "

Selendrile gave her one of his mysterious smiles that gave nothing away. She interpreted this one as 'wouldn't you like to know'. Why yes, yes she would. "What's it like being so pretty? Is it nice?"

"I imagine it's quite similar to how it is for you, now—"

"Oh no, I'm not very good looking. I don't think people would treat me the same as you. You almost look noble! Even if I was dressed up I have peasant written all over me."

Selendrile was giving her that puzzled look again. "You look fine Alys. But let's talk about the—"

"Do you comb your hair? Or is it always just tangle free? Do you wash it? Because it's _so_ silky and—"

Selendrile caught her wrist as she reached up to feel his hair, and gently lowered it back down. "Alys. How about you tell me about this tea of yours."

"Oh. Alright. Well, it was in that funny little section in the book you gave me," Alys answered readily enough, pointing to her pack a little ways away. Selendrile dropped her wrist and immediately walked over to the pack. Alys followed him and hovered while he sorted through the bag, staring at the muscles rippling in his shoulders and back as he moved. It must be from the flying. Presumably flying would require a great deal of back and shoulder strength. And since humans didn't have wings did that mean all his wing muscle went to his back, shoulders or arms? "When you transform where do your wings go? Oh the section's in the back of the book. See that one there? There it is!" Alys said shuffling around to stand by the now standing Selendrile and point at the pages. Selendrile looked over the page at the beginning of the section, but Alys flipped the page over to her tea one. That page was much more interesting, seeing as it had the plant she found. Selendrile sent her a quick irritated look and looked down at the tea page.

"You can not read can you?" he asked slowly looking back up at her.

Alys giggled. "Bahhh why would _I_ know how to _read_? Silly. You knew thaaaat." Really, hadn't Selendrile learned anything? Peasants rarely know anything about reading. And a girl one?

Selendrile made a humming noise and shut the book with a snap. "I think I'll keep this book safe until we work on your reading abilities." He started to walk back over to the fire, and Alys followed after him. "You should drink some water and eat something."

"That's sweet of you to care about my health! Especially since for once you're commenting on it _before _you think I might be dying. But really I don't feel that thirsty or hungry right now. Wait a second—do _you_ know how to read? When did _that_ happen?"

"Just picked it up some here and there. There's still room for improvement," he replied absently while picking up her pot and walking away with it.

"Just picked some up here and there?! Woah Selendrile I knew you were smart but I didn't know you were _that_ smart. You're _incredible_! You must be a genius! Do you get bored easily because you are so smart? You aren't going to get bored of _me_ are you? Because I don't want you to and it's only fair you warn me in—_my tea_!" Alys broke off as Selendrile dumped all of her tea into the suspicious corner. Just because he didn't want her tea didn't mean he had to dump it! In the animal preparation corner no less. Perhaps it would make the corner cleaner though. Tea could do things like that. Maybe.

"I think you've had enough of your tea. How about you go eat some of that nice meal you cooked earlier? I'm sure it tastes very good. Good enough that it doesn't matter that you aren't hungry at the moment," Selendrile said, guiding Alys along back over to the fire. He said it in a tone that one would use on a child, or an extremely dull witted person—which reminded her.

"Selendrile I'm very happy for you and your new ability to read but I can't."

"Yes, that's why I said you should learn," Selendrile replied in a soothing voice, pausing to deposit her near the fire.

Alys giggled. "No, I mean can't learn! It's _ridiculous_ to think I could! I'm no where _near_ smart enough for that."

"What makes you think that?" he replied a little absent mindedly. Alys twisted around from where he had sat her down to see that he was now searching through her

baskets by the fire.

"If reading were _easy_ don't you think more people would be able to read? Only smart people can read. I can't read, I'm not smart." Why was he having such a hard time grasping this concept?

"My experience with you has not led me to believe you are un-intelligent. Now, is this the food you made for yourself?" he asked holding up the food she had made for herself. Alys nodded and watched as he walked back over to her, and sat the food down in front of her. He then went over to one of her water pails and poured some water into a large mug and came back to sit down opposite of her, placing the mug on the ground between them next to the food. Alys looked down at the food and then blinked up at him. What was he expecting her to do? Hadn't she already told him she wasn't hungry?

"Is this one of those times where I tell you I'm not dying and you aren't convinced? Because I'm fiiiiinnneee."

"Yes, I'm sure you're fine. But why don't you eat something to convince me?"

"I'm not hungry!"

"How about we play a little game? You can ask me questions, and if I answer them, you have to eat a large bite and two big gulps of water."

He was using that child's voice again. Which was a little insulting, especially considering that he had just tried to convince her that she was 'not un-intelligent'. But it was such an enticing deal….

"Do you brush your hair?"

"Not with a comb," he quickly replied motioning to her food. Alys made a face and stuffed a sizable portion into her mouth.

"What's your favorite color?"

"The color of the sky."

"Have you—"

"I won't answer until you eat and drink."

Alys made another face but obliged. Jeez. Such a stickler for the rules when it was his game they were playing.

"Have you ever had another human before?"

Selendrile furrowed his brow a little at that one and then replied slowly, "No, you

are the only human I've lived with."

Fair enough. Not quite an answer, but maybe it was the delivery of the question that was the problem. She stuffed some more food in her mouth and chewed slowly. Eating really did seem laborious right now. Why was he forcing her to eat? Maybe she should use her questions more wisely. What was something she really wanted to know the answer to that he was unlikely to answer at another time?

"Do you actually like me? Or did you just take me in out of a sense of obligation because I helped you and really you could care less about me?" Ha! That was good one. She had always wondered how much a role her saving his life had played in his taking care of her after the whole incident. Although technically he had returned the favor by saving her life. But technically the burning at a stake bit was just part of saving him. But _technically_ he wouldn't have gotten in a life threatening situation in the first place if it hadn't been for her. So really that voided the her dying as part of saving him bit. But if she was going to view it that way, it was his decision to get involved so then… oh now she was confused. There was probably definitely maybe a good reason for her to have always wondered this.

Selendrile gave her another funny look, one of his ones that wasn't quite a human expression so despite him being expressive, revealing nothing. "I would not spend time with you if I disliked it," he finally settled on saying.

Alys looked down at her food distastefully. She really didn't feel like eating it. And he was cheating, he was giving her stupid answers to her questions, not really answering them. "I don't want to play anymore," Alys announced, poking at her food.

"What do you mean you don't want to play anymore? You've been asking me questions all night," Selendrile pointed out.

"There's too much pressure to come up with good questions! I can't think of the things I really want to ask you."

"You can ask me anything."

"I'm not hungry!" Alys complained once again, shoving her food away from her self. That got a flash of a recognizable emotion from him, annoyance. What did he have to be annoyed over? She was the one being forced to do things she didn't want to and she couldn't even think of all the pressing questions she had had for him to make it worth it. And she had had so many questions too!

"I really think you should keep eating and drinking. You'll feel better if you do," Selendrile urged, slowly pushing the food back forward.

"I feel fine!"

"You might not be the best judge right now."

The arrogance! "Excuse me! Just because you're so smart doesn't mean you know what's best for me!" Alys stood up and stomped away. Typical Selendrile, ignoring what she tried telling him! Alys found a spot against the wall of the cave a safe distance away from him and sat down on the ground against it. "And I can't read!" she threw in for good measure. Might as well reinforce all the things he wasn't listening to her about. "Am not smart enough, and I'm a peasant, and I'm a girl! Girls rarely learn to—" Alys broke off with a gasp when a thought struck her. "That brat! She knows how to read! That's why she gave me that funny look when I mentioned drawing the plant on the sign! And why she kept insisting I make the tea after she looked at the book!" Alys paused a moment before adding, "Though why she didn't want any tea I can't imagine because I feel _great_ right now…."

"Oh?" Selendrile asked standing up and heading over to Alys's new location. "I don't know why she didn't want any tea either. Perhaps if you tell me more about who this is…?" Selendrile asked lightly.

"Oh just my friend. She was the captain of our expedition today! She's the reason we got lost. But you didn't hear that from me."

"I see…" Selendrile said coming over to sit in front of Alys once again. "So, how old is this friend exactly?"

"Eight. I don't know why her guardians let her roam around in the woods all the time. I know _I_ wasn't allowed to wander around in the woods all the time and befriend strange women." Alys giggled. "Heh heh I just called myself a strange woman."

Selendrile smiled at her and patiently waited until her fit of giggles was over. "Were you ever planning to tell me about this friend?"

Was it just her imagination or did his voice sound a tad bit strained? Hmm, maybe it wasn't very fair of her to keep secrets from him. But it was too late now, so honesty was the best policy. "Nope."

"I see."

"You didn't take my last friend very well," Alys offered as an explanation.

"And by last friend, do you mean the _dog_?"

"That's the one. You weren't very happy about that. I've gotten better at reading your emotions you know. I know you were angry about me having a dog."

"I was not angry about you having a dog."

"Yes you were. Angry. Angry angry."

"I just don't see why you need a dog."

"I already told you I don't _need_ one. I _wanted _one. Two different things. Wait a second, are you jealous of a dog? A dog? That's-"

"And I don't understand why you felt compelled to keep it a secret from me either."

"Well clearly that was a good idea because you didn't handle it well." Oops. There was that flash of annoyance again. Or was it anger? Or was it boredom? Hmmm she could have sworn she was better at reading his emotions than this. Maybe it was time to change the subject. "Do you know what I feel like doing?"

"Eating and drinking perhaps?"

"Dancing! I miss dancing!" Alys jumped up and pulled Selendrile with her, before forcing him to twirl around with her. He did the first couple moves she forced him to do willingly enough, even chuckling a little, but when they got to a foot work-work part of the dance, he let go of his hands and gave her less of a genuine smile and more one of his you can't tell what I'm thinking smiles. Alys un-phased twirled herself around one more time. "I was born the day after the first frost of that year you know. So every year when the town had it's fall festival, in hopes of a mild winter and all that, my father would tell me it was to celebrate my birthday. I'm pretty sure I believed him until I was almost six. But even after then I always loved the dancing and the music. It might not have been for me, but it was still the best way to spend a birthday ever. Do you like music Selendrile?"

"I hate ballads. And minstrels are the worst. I definitely eat them first if it comes up."

"No armor."

"No armor," he agreed with a smile. "But I think I would like the music you dance to," he admitted.

Alys smiled back at him. "Well then, we'll just have to take you to a dance won't we?"

"_We'll_ have to take me?"

Alys gave him a definite nod, before twirling a few more times over to her bed and flopping down there. Selendrile followed more slowly this time, and sat down next to her, apparently having given up trying to convince to her to eat and drink. "Can I tell you a secret? I'm terrible at basket weaving."

"You don't say?" Selendrile asked, sounding astonished. Aha! She could read his emotions again.

"It's true! Not a talent of mine. Do you think you could get me some yarn? I'm thinking pink. And some wool? NOT a sheep though. And maybe some ribbon? I'm going to try something else." Selendrile nodded and Alys yawned, patting Selendrile on the leg in silent thanks.

"Tired?" Selendrile asked.

"Yeah, I think maybe it's time for me to turn in," Alys answered, rolling around until she was positioned at the top of the bed. Selendrile rather helpfully held her blankets up for her and she slipped under them. "Can I ask you another question without you making me eat or drink? You aren't going to get sick of me someday and leave me all alone again are you?"

Selendrile paused in his ensuring that Alys was properly in her bed to look at her thoughtfully for a moment. He glanced away towards where he had set the book down and then back at her for a moment or so before finally softly replying, "I'm not so sure I could ever get sick of you Alys."

"Gahhh! You're being so nice today, I'll forever remember today as the day you were really nice to me!" Alys gushed as she reached up pulled Selendrile into another hug.

"I'm fairly certain you won't remember much of tonight."

"What?" Alys asked as she let go of him.

"Good night," he replied reaching over to pick up the book.

"Oh, good night Selendrile!" Alys rolled over and muttered partially into her pillow, "I still can't believe you know how to read…it's incredible…."


	7. Chap 7: Double edged sword of happiness

**Finding What's Eternal**

Chapter 7

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_x.x.x._

_A/N: So this chapter is really long- sorry about that buuuut I think when you get to the end you'll forgive me for making you read so much ;) FUN FACT the bit about smoked/salted/cured meat in the general November time frame during celebrations bit is ACTUALLY true! (believe it or not, I was willing to not be lazy for once and actually look up festivals during the middle ages). And music and dance were actually large parts of any celebration during that time period too. The rest, I completely made up. Because I completely made up Fall Festival :) I hope you enjoy, and as always, thank you for reading this far!_

_x.x.x._

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Alys made it through most of the daylight hours the next day before _finally_ realizing that she couldn't remember the night before. She could remember coming back to the cave and making some food… but after that nothing. She had a vague notion that Selendrile was there for part of it and an even vaguer notion that at one point something had happened that made her really happy, but other then that her memory was blank. For some reason when she tried to think about it one of the cheerful dance songs she grew up listening to popped into her head, but what could a song she hadn't heard played in about a year now have to do with last night? She had no idea. Probably nothing. It was probably just her mind rebelling at her attempts to focus it on something it clearly did not want to. At least it was rebelling with something nice instead of something not like spiders or poorly made stools. Since sitting idly attempting to recall the prior night resulted in nothing other than a headache, bad mood, and an annoyingly cheerful dance song Alys decided to give up on that front, it was clearly a losing battle.

Instead she searched around the cave for clues. While her room was looking very nicely tidy and clean, it also looked frustratingly completely ordinary. The only thing, _only thing_ out of place was a tattered old dress which was sitting on top of one of her chests. So apparently she had attempted mending the dress at some point last night, but that couldn't have been _all_ she did last night. Granted, she wasn't particularly fast with a needle but she wasn't _that_ slow with one either that she wouldn't have finished mending it over the period of her missing memory. Her new tactic of trying to deduct what had occurred was proving equally futile, so eventually Alys gave up on that as well. She would just have to ask Selendrile whenever he returned from wherever he was.

The problem was that Selendrile wasn't nearly as eager to return from whatever he was doing as Alys was for him to return. The frustrating dragon didn't bother showing his face in the cave until several hours after sunset. Upon hearing his return Alys immediately poked her head into his part of the cave and beckoned him with her hand before returning to her own room. She stood impatiently in the middle waiting for him to transform and dress.

"Yes?"

Alys jumped a little and turned to find Selendrile standing right behind her, as usual, having been able to approach without her hearing. "Selendrile," Alys began, looking at him intently. Selendrile raised his eyebrows slightly and waited for her to continue. "I can't remember last night," she finished flatly.

"Yes," was his infuriatingly calm response.

"Why can't I remember last night?"

"I suspect it has something to do with the amount of tea you consumed."

"_What?_" Alys asked absolutely baffled.

"This is why I support a strictly meat diet. Rarely any surprises when all you're dealing with is livestock."

"What do you mean you suspect it was due to 'the amount of tea I consumed'?" Alys demanded, ignoring his unwanted opinion on the matter. He never offered his opinion when it was _wanted_ or when it actually _mattered_.

"Exactly what I said."

Alys made a frustrated noise in her throat and tried to ignore the annoyingly innocent look on his face. How he was enjoying this. "What I _meant_ was, what tea are you talking about? And where did it come from? And why has it affected my memory and what happened last night?"

"Ah. You should have said so. It was the tea you made for yourself last night using a plant you found in the 'psychoactive and the like' plant section of the book. Which is why you no longer have the book, and I have this," He explained, holding out a small book and a flat rectangular box which Alys had somehow failed to notice him holding behind his back this entire time. Alys looked down at the little book and saw that it had large lettering on it and a picture on the cover. She reached forward and took the box from him, and opened it. Then she looked back up at Selendrile questioningly.

"You brought me a little book and a box of dirt because I made a tea from this… 'fico-active' part of the book?" Alys asked, at a complete loss now for what was going on. She was totally and completely stumped. "And you never told me what happened last night," she added hastily.

"Psychoactive and the like section. It refers to plants that when consumed affect your perception. Which is why you are learning to read before you accidentally poison yourself. How you humans know so little about what you can and can not eat I do not understand."

"I can't learn to read," Alys haughtily replied. "And I know plenty about what I can and cannot eat—you're the one that encouraged me to find other things to eat! And you _still_ haven't told—wait a second, do _you_ know how to read?!"

Selendrile sighed and nudged Alys over towards her bed. "We already went through this last night, during which you also agreed to learn."

Alys paused to take that in. He knew how to _read?_ And he wanted her to _learn_? And she _agreed?_ That didn't sound very much like something she would do. Selendrile pressed on her shoulder lightly to indicate she should sit. "I _agreed_?" she just asked in disbelief.

"Yes. Last night," he replied sitting down himself instead and looking up at her.

"I _agreed_? Are you sure?"

"Absolutely," he confirmed, sending her a dazzlingly smile before yanking her arm down hard enough to force her into sitting down next to him. But Alys was too overwhelmed by the surreal situation to pay much attention.

"You can _read_?! How long have you been able to do that? Who _taught_ you?"

"No one taught me, I picked it up," he replied briskly, as if teaching yourself to read without even trying was a perfectly normal thing to happen. "Now this 'box of dirt' as you put it, is so that you can learn the letters," he explained, setting it on the ground in front of them and drawing what appeared to be a letter in the dirt with his finger, "so that eventually you can read this book meant for children."

Alys just stared at him, jaw hanging slightly open.

Selendrile observed her for a little, looking a tad amused before holding up the book. "It's quite an entertaining story really. It's about this thing called 'God' which talks in this man Noah's head and warns him a big flood will cover the whole earth. So this Noah builds a large boat in which he puts a pair of every animal in, thus saving all living things." At this point Selendrile chuckled a little. "You humans come up with the most ridiculous stories for your children. Silly book doesn't bother to take into account dragons at all. And I should think _someone_ would have informed this Noah that this 'God' was a fearie tricking him, it's fairly obvious."

Alys jaw dropped down a little lower. She was pretty sure Father Joseph just rolled over in his grave. Potentially multiple times. Selendrile seemingly oblivious to her response shoved the book into her limp hands and shifted the little box closer to her, drawing another symbol into the dirt. "Let's start with the letters in the title. This letter here is 'N'," he explained, while Alys continued to stare at him. When she didn't respond Selendrile turned to look at her and frowned. "Look at the letter Alys," he commanded, reaching out to give her jaw a little bump shut.

And so it went, until Alys finally managed to escape using the excuse of needing to go to bed. To be fair, Selendrile was a very good teacher. He explained things well and repeatedly asked her questions to make sure she was indeed learning. He also was surprisingly patient with her. In fact, the only thing he wasn't patient about was when Alys tried to worm her way out of learning or shied away from answering his questions, which unfortunately, she tried numerous times. At first it was because she rejected the idea of learning to read—the idea was madness! But Selendrile clearly did not share her opinion on the matter and there was only so far she was willing to push this disagreement. The real problem then became her fear of embarrassment. Every time he asked her a question she felt like a small child afraid of disappointing their parent with the wrong answer. And despite the fact she had openly claimed she was too stupid to learn, sadly after only two letters in, she didn't want _prove_ to Selendrile she was stupid. He had dismissed her argument instantly, and despite not knowing whether that was because he thought reading was easy or if he thought she was intelligent, she felt an odd sense of pride at his confidence in her; a confidence that she was in no hurry to shatter.

No amount of avoidance was enough to deter Selendrile though. While Selendrile possessed the ability to spend the majority of his time elsewhere, Alys did not. And there were only so many excuses Alys could make once he found her. It didn't help matters that her reluctance to learn only fueled Selendrile's determination to teach her. This was exactly how in only about a week and a half she found herself knowing all the letters and starting to work on spelling small words. Not that she would ever admit it to Selendrile, but Alys was beginning to feel a little excited that she was learning to read. After she started getting a grip on it she became a little less afraid of getting things wrong. Sure she might not be able to sound things out all that well, and could spell almost nothing, but she had at least learned the letters which was more than she ever grew up believing was a possibility. The task also required Selendrile to spend more time with her than he usually did, which no matter the task she was always glad of. Besides, she began to enjoy her charade of being inconvenienced by learning to read with Selendrile just as much as she was sure he enjoyed her putting it on.

While Selendrile hadn't been teaching her to write per se, he had left the box of dirt with her and she knew how to draw the letters with her fingers. They weren't as elegant or loopy as what the scribes wrote, but it did let her practice spelling some of the simple words Selendrile had pointed out in the books. She could try spelling them and then find them in the book to see if she had done it correctly. She was crouched down on the floor doing just this when she felt hands land on her shoulders and Selendrile's voice say, "Spell dance."

Alys jumped a little as she always did when Selendrile surprised her with his presence, but instead of complaining or looking up at him, she just brushed what she had previously been spelling out of the dirt. She slowly spelled out the letters 'd-a-n' before pausing. Was it a 's' or a 'c'? A 's' would definitely make the right sound, but Selendrile had mentioned something about 'c' being able to make a similar sound. Selendrile remained silent while she thought, if not for his hands still resting on her shoulders Alys wouldn't even have been able to tell that he was hovering over her only a few inches away. _Well_, Alys thought, _regardless of whether it's a 's' or a 'c', what, if anything, comes next?_ If no letter came afterwards neither of the letters in question would make the right sound, but if an 'e' followed the 'c' the word would definitely make the right sound. But a 's' could also… on a whim Alys hurriedly finished the word with a 'c-e' and awaited the verdict.

"Very good," Selendrile praised as soon as she had finished. Alys felt her shoulders, which she hadn't even realized were tensed, relax as she stared down at her correct word. "Did you notice anything unusual last night?" he asked after a pause.

Alys slowly shook her head no as she thought about it. She was beginning to get the feeling that she was missing something. Not in that she hadn't noticed anything unusual last night, even though she hadn't, but the feeling she got when Selendrile had cryptically revealed exactly what he was talking about, or planning, or thinking, and that she was missing it. Alys prided herself on being able to pick up on that feeling—she might miss what he was _hinting_ at three quarters of the time, but at least she could _tell_ when she was missing it. Which was a start.

"There was a frost last night."

Again he paused, giving her the chance to figure it out.

"The first of the year?"

"Exactly. So are you ready to go dance?"

Alys head shot up to look at Selendrile's face looming over hers. His eyes twinkled with amusement as he watched her. "The Fall Festival?" she asked a little breathlessly, her brain moving more slowly than her hopeful heart.

"You told me that 'we' must take me to a dance. But by all means we could just skip this one—is there some other dancing event you would prefer?" he asked playfully, tilting his head to the side as he pretended to ponder it.

"No, no! The fall festival is just fine!" Alys blurted out, not bothering to play along or question him about this statement she had no recollection making; the idea of going to the fall festival was far to exciting to question.

Selendrile gave her one of his wicked grins, the one that indicated she had fallen right for his bait, but Alys was too busy staring hopefully up at him to mind. At this moment he was like a shining beacon of happiness that could do no wrong. Not even make fun of her for staring up at him worshippingly. "Well then, let's go. It started at sun down so we've hardly missed any of it," he said briskly, waiting just long enough to take in her ear to ear grin before removing his hands from her shoulders. It was only when he stepped away that Alys realized that she hadn't seen a shirt around his neck, which meant he hadn't been wearing a shirt, which probably meant he wasn't wearing anything at all—which meant there really had never been a question about them going anywhere. Alys popped up and ran over to her chest to pull out the bonnet she used to hide her short hair as well as a small coin purse before running off to the ledge that she stood on when preparing for dragon transport. She reached there before Selendrile, who was in no hurry. Selendrile laughed at her as he handed her his cloths, but she just shooed him away, indicating that he should transform already. He could laugh at her all he wanted, she wasn't going to miss the fall festival after all!

x.x.x.

As soon as they landed Alys could hear the music. She dragged Selendrile along and didn't stop pulling him after her until they had reached the main street of the celebration. The street was full of people, bright colors, endless lines of vendors, and festivities. Alys paused to take it all in, before turning to Selendrile and calling above all the noise, "I can't pass up the feast, I'm going to grab some food first!" Selendrile's eyes drifted over to her but since he didn't make an immediate comment Alys waved goodbye and pranced off into the lines of vendors, leaving him to no doubt be swarmed by masses of young girls. That was one benefit of Selendrile standing out, he never had to seek out attention when she left him alone; people gravitated to him on their own, never even giving him the chance to be bored for more than a brief moment.

The fact that winter was coming meant that feed for livestock would soon become scarce and expensive. As a result, this festival marked the beginning of trimming down the livestock numbers by using them for smoked and cured meat which could last through the winter at a much cheaper price. Alys bought some of the plentiful smoked meat and some sweet bread. As she ate she walked around investigating what other venders were selling, soaking up the infectious cheer of the festival. Eventually she came upon a crowd gathered around for the start of a wheelbarrow walk race.

"Ye want to get in on the bettin'?" A large man asked, elbowing Alys as soon as she joined the crowd. "Bettin' time is almost up lass," he warned with a wink. Alys smiled at him, which he took as a sign she was in. "Good choice my dear, the winnin' group gets free rum!" he informed her as he nudged her in the direction of the booth which was apparently in charge of running the whole thing.

"Who'll it be?" one of the men at the booth asked the second she approached.

Alys glanced over at the pairs of men preparing themselves for the race. Some of them were obviously drunk, some were young, some old, some strong, and some thin as sticks. They all wore different colored or combinations of colored cloths tied around their heads to mark which team they were. "Two bronze pieces for the gray team," she shouted back at the man indicating the team with two lanky boys who were both trying to rub dirt over the other, always a promising sign, while she pressed the bronze pieces into the man's hand.

"Aye, two bronze pieces for gray by one young miss…?"

"Keina," Alys supplied, picking a random name.

"Young miss Keina with the yellow flower," the man finished, fishing a tiny yellow flower out of a crate underneath the booth as a man behind him jotted down the bet. Alys took the flower with a smile and nod, tucking it into her bonnet right above her ear. She was about to turn and go when she noticed Selendrile a short ways away, as predicted, being led along by two girls who were all smiles and batting eyelashes. Alys caught his eyes and raised her eyebrows at him as she finished securing the flower before giving him a mock disappointed in him shake of the head. Selendrile returned her mock disappointment with mock innocence. Alys smiled and skipped off back into the crowd, standing next to the friendly large man with a receding hairline who had encouraged her to bet in the first place.

"Who'dya bet on lass?" he merrily asked as soon as he noticed she was beside him again.

"Gray," she yelled back, pointing at the lanky pair as they lined up at the starting line and clumsily got into position.

"Interestin' choice, interestin' choice," he commented nodding his head as he thought about it, probably contemplating their carefree attitude and complete lack of coordination. "Hamo," he then said, thrusting his hand in her direction, without ever taking his eyes off the teams.

"Keina," Alys replied giving his hand a firm shake. Right then Selendrile arrived, tapping her shoulder to inform her of his presence. "Hello," she tried to greet cheerfully, but as she said it a horn blared marking the beginning of the race. Alys whipped back around to watch but found her view blocked by cheering townsfolk. She put her hands on Selendrile and Hamo's shoulders as she hopped up and down trying to get a view.

"Lift the lass up!" Hamo, taking a break from his cheering, shouted over to Selendrile while still never taking his eyes of the race, apparently unconcerned who exactly it was he was ordering to help lift her. He then proceeded to bend down and grab one of her legs. Selendrile followed suit after a second's delay, probably during which he was trying to figure out what in the world Hamo had meant, and together they lifted her up so that she was sitting between their shoulders, each holding one of her legs.

Alys poked Selendrile in the head, before shouting down to him, "We're cheering for the gray team!" She then turned forward again to watch the race, joining in on the cheering. Several of the drunk contenders had fallen down already, some of them comically scrambling back up with dramatic gestures and shouts back at the crowd assuring them they would keep going, some of them apparently giving up and accepting the bucket of water being thrown at them for quitting the race, and one pair gave an elegant bow before sprinting off avoiding their water dunking. Meanwhile some of the non-drunk contenders had taken to trying to knock each other over, a tactic which often resulted in both teams tripping and falling down in a tangle of limbs. The raceway's sides were roped off, narrowing the street available to them as it neared the end, causing massive pile ups when other teams had a hard time avoiding the flailing fallen teams.

Miraculously her skinny gray team managed to slip by one of the pile ups which took place right by the finish line and narrowly crossed the finish line right before the red-yellow team. Alys threw both of her arms up and hooted. Unfortunately, despite Hamo haven cheered for the blue and black-blue team the entire time, he started hopping up and down cheering for the gray team as soon as they won anyways. Alys, nearly losing her balance and pitching forward off his shoulder, impulsively wrapped her arms around Selendrile's head trying to steady herself. Selendrile, handling the situation with far more grace than she despite having his face covered by her arms, started to lower her. Hamo taking the hint, let go of Alys's other leg and allowed Selendrile to take on most of her weight as he lowered her to the ground. Once safely on the ground, Alys started laughing, and while smiling up at Selendrile's face in thanks she swiped some of his hair which she had messed up back out of his face.

"We won!" she shouted at him, lifting his arm up with her own as she hooted again. Though she doubted Selendrile had any feelings on the matter he smiled back and temporarily played along.

"Gray team?" a man carrying a tray of mugs filled with rum asked behind them.

Both Alys and Hamo whipped around and shouted, "Gray team, wooo!" in unison. Apparently that was all the proof the man required before handing out the promised rum to winning team betters, giving all three of them a mug despite Selendrile having done nothing but look back at the man blankly. Alys, suspecting Selendrile had little idea what was going on at this point, grabbed Selendrile's mug holding arm and brought his mug forward with her own to clank mugs with Hamo, shouting, "Heeeey!" as she did it. Hamo and her took a sip before turning to others to clank mugs with them and cheer over the gray team's success some more. Apparently, nearly everyone had 'betted' on the 'gray' team and was drinking rum now. Selendrile on the other hand, turned and stuffed his mug into a nearby man's hand who accepted it unquestioningly. Alys allowed herself be carried forward with the surge of people over to the betting booth, and waited her turn. Once at the front she declared herself 'Keina with the yellow flower', pointing at the flower tucked above her ear, and was handed her money.

She popped out of the hoard surrounding the booth and held up the winnings in her palm to show Selendrile with a little smirk. He nodded in recognition of her success as he grandly linked elbows with her. "So where would you like to go next? Or would you prefer to continue…."

"Betting? Or gambling," Alys supplied, choosing to yell instead following suit with his tactic of talking in her ear.

"Yes, that."

"I don't recall this declaration that you must go to a dance, but I still agree with myself!" she replied, letting go of his arm to sidestep around someone. She was about to rejoin arms with him when an idea struck her as she noticed two children that looked half starved leaning against the wall of a building. "We'll go dance in just a moment!" she assured Selendrile, holding up a single finger as she backed away, darting around some people to skip over to the children.

"Hello!" she said, bending over so that her head was at the same level as theirs. The two of them muttered frightened greetings back, looking like they felt more inclined to morph into part of the wall than to talk to her. "Hold out your hands," she instructed them with a big smile. They both looked at her hesitantly. "Go on, it's alright," she assured them. They glanced at each other and then slowly reached out their hands. Alys dropped half of her winnings into each of their hands. "Happy Fall Festival," she wished them as warmly as she could, before standing up to skip back over to Selendrile.

"They were all alone and in need of help," Alys explained, ignoring the fact that he hadn't questioned her actions at all. "I once was too, but then you found me, and now as your reward, I shall introduce you to dancing!" Alys declared dramatically extending her arm towards the masses of dancing people whom they had reached. She pulled him into the lines that had formed and began dancing, allowing Selendrile to mimic what the other men were doing, occasionally indicating where he should move or calling out the next step. Selendrile as she expected needed very little help. He was good at mimicking at only a half a seconds delay and if the moves repeated, seemed to remember them after only doing them once. This particular dance involved changing partners so he only remained in Alys sight for a short period of time after they had switched, but from what she could tell, his other female partners would have no idea that they were dancing with someone who had never danced before.

Once the dance ended Alys curtseyed to her most recent partner and headed over to Selendrile. "How was your first dance?" she asked brightly.

"I understand why you are fond of it," he admitted, as the music for the next dance started up.

"Oh, let's go get in position," Alys said, about to find a spot for them in the assembling crowd of dancers.

"But you're missing something," he called out lightly before she managed even two steps away from him.

"Heh?"

Selendrile just gave her a mysterious smile, or rather a slight upward tilt on a corner of his mouth, and turned on his heel to walk away. Alys flailed a little and darted after him in the crowd, finally catching up with him at a nearby vender's booth. He turned right as she approached and plucked the flower out from behind her ear with one hand, the cap off with the other. He tossed both carelessly out into the street before Alys could protest and stuffed a garland, one of the ones with dried flowers woven around it and long trails of colorful ribbon hanging down from the back, on her head in their place. He stepped back a little to survey his handy work before apparently pleased with himself announcing, "There, now you fit in." He then took her wrist and returned the favor of dragging her into the dance.

They danced the next several dances together, or at least started them together since most of the dances involved changing partners. Alys was at least somewhat familiar with all them but when a song came up that she wasn't familiar with she used the opportunity to pull Selendrile away over to the fountain that she had noticed a couple of dances earlier. She picked up one of the wooden ladles floating in the fountain before turning to Selendrile, mischievous grin already on her face. "Do you know what this is?"

"A spoon," he replied, with just enough amusement playing in his eyes for her to tell he knew that was the wrong answer.

"No, not that, what _this_ is," she said gesturing at the whole thing with her free hand. Selendrile tipped his head to the side to either indicate he was thinking, or that he didn't know, or any number of other things. "It's Fall Festival tradition!" she explained excitedly, turning to look at the fountain. "I thought it might be something only my village did, but then I noticed this, so apparently not. You see, it's to represent your wishes for a mild winter. Because if it's a mild winter, it won't be too cold at night, so when you do this…" Alys said, quickly turning to face Selendrile and standing on her tip toes to dump the ladleful of water onto the top of his head, "the other person will be just fine!" She finished the last bit quickly, throwing the ladle back into the fountain and taking a quick step away from Selendrile.

He narrowed his eyes at her, and Alys flashed him a broad grin, taking another step back. He slowly reached towards the fountain without ever taking his eyes off her, and Alys took another step back, still grinning at him. He paused, but then he flashed her his own mischievous grin before suddenly grasping onto a ladle handle. With a little squawk Alys took off into the crowd, weaving around in attempts to lose Selendrile. After a little while she stopped scurrying around to look around and see if Selendrile was still following her. She couldn't see him anywhere. Perhaps she had been too good at losing him. Alys slowly started to wander through the crowd, cautiously peering around people in search of him. She was getting a distinct feeling they were playing cat and mouse now, only she wasn't sure which one _she_ was in this particular case. Thinking she caught a glimpse of his golden hair she quickly stepped around someone to try and get a better look, but there was no sign of anyone with long blond hair. Thinking she must have imagined it she frowned and retreated a couple of steps. She bumped against someone and had just enough time to turn and catch a glimpse of golden hair before a ladle full of water was dumped on her head.

Alys wiped at the water which was dripping into her eyes before looking up at Selendrile's pleased face. "Mouse," she said flatly. "I was the mouse, not the cat wasn't I?"

"Did you expect differently?" he teased, smile playing at his mouth.

"Did I at least do better than _some _of the things you've chased down in your day?"

Selendrile pretended to think about this a moment before replying slowly, "There may have been a few cows…." Alys tried to look at him sternly, but her resolution dissolved the second her eyes met his which were twinkling with amusement and ended up bursting out laughing instead. Selendrile smiled back at her before extending his arm out. "Another dance? I heard some rumors this one may be the last."

Alys reached for his arm about to accept before pausing. "I don't know this song; I don't know the dance."

Selendrile took her arm in his anyways and started marching them along towards the square where the dancing took place. "I've done just fine without knowing any of them," he pointed out simply.

"Yes, but you're you," Alys pointed out in return, letting him lead her along without protest. She thought that was a pretty good argument in her favor.

Selendrile just lifted an eyebrow at her at that remark and as usual dismissed her rejection easily with a, "Well, you can follow my lead then."

Alys sighed with more resignment than she actually felt. Selendrile pulled her into place after him and they waited with all the other couples for the dance to begin. As the song neared the beginning notes of the dance, other couples reached out and held hands with each other in what was apparently the starting position of the dance. Selendrile held out both his hands and Alys placed her hands in his, while she eyed the nearby couples, waiting for them to make the first move. The other couples had apparently been fairly pre-emptive with their starting positions though since several lines of music drifted by without any movement from the other couples.

Standing their holding Selendrile's hands suddenly Alys started feeling nervous. She couldn't pinpoint why exactly; it's not as if she hadn't messed up a few times already in previous dances, so not knowing the dance wasn't _that_ big of a deal, especially since seeing as it was fairly late in the evening now a good number of people were drunk. But she was nervous none the less. Wondering if Selendrile could tell that she was suddenly nervous Alys sent him a reassuring smile, which given the look he gave her back, probably indicated she was nervous more than it indicated that she wasn't. But before she had time to worry about _that_ apparently the first note of the dance part was struck and all the couples took off galloping sideways around the circle.

Then as suddenly as they had started galloping one way, they started galloping the other way. Alys faltered a little at the switch and if it hadn't been for Selendrile, probably would have ended up interrupting the whole line of girls dancing on her left. Then they abruptly stopped, Selendrile once again firmly taking hold of her before she crashed into someone, and the women and men circles took off going opposite ways doing some kind of foot work. Alys stumbled along with the other women trying to figure out the steps while she completely missed doing all of them. By the time she figured out what they were doing the women stopped and clapped their hands three times and then took off going in the opposite direction. This time Alys successfully managed to execute the correct steps, admittedly not very gracefully, and ended up back in front of Selendrile, joining in on the clapping just in time to catch the third clap. At this point they both reached out their right arms and linked them at the elbow to skip around each other. Once they had made a full circle, they switched arms and skipped around the other way.

"Selendrile! This dance is more complicated than the ones I know," Alys hissed at him as they made the switch, or rather, as Selendrile made the switch and dragged her along.

It was apparently now time for them to spin around each other while holding both hands. Instead of keeping their arms extended, Selendrile wrapped one arm around her waist and twirled her around close to him in order to whisper back in her ear, sounding rather amused, "I thought I told you to follow me."

Alys was about to protest when they took off again with a different move and she found herself wildly glancing around once again to figure out what she should be doing. Selendrile painfully squeezed her hand and she whipped her head around about to demand what the assault on her hand was for. She was silenced though by the warning look in his eyes. Alys resorted to making a pouting face to show her displeasure silently instead. But at this point Selendrile smiled and as they did a move that brought them close together once again he whispered in her ear, "See? Now you aren't stumbling."

It took Alys a moment to process this, but as the men and women lines started revolving around the circle in opposite directions again, this time sashaying facing alternate directions every couple of steps, it dawned on her that the entire time she had been trying to silently communicate with Selendrile instead of watching other people she had made no missteps. Right, well that was simple then, all she had to do was watch Selendrile and not think about the steps. She could do that right?

Paying attention to Selendrile turned out to not really be an option because as soon as the circles realigned and brought her back in front of him the music suddenly picked up again, and the couples took off galloping to the side again. This time though, the man's hands were on the woman's waist, and the woman's hands on the man's shoulders, and after a few gallops the man lifted the girl and spun around before lowering her on the opposite side of him. This was followed by some more galloping, some close twirling together on the ground, and then the pattern repeated. It would be awfully difficult for the girl to _not_ look at her partner.

Alys managed to let herself go a little when they started galloping, finally letting herself enjoy the lively music of this foreign dance, and as instructed just looked at Selendrile who was somehow managing to be sturdy, graceful, and confident all at the same time while dancing to a dance he did not know. But relaxing and enjoying the dance suddenly became even easier on the first lift. Selendrile lifted her as if she were light as a feather before she even realized it was time for the lift, and while watching the town spin around her she finally decided she quite liked this dance and found herself laughing. Alys glanced back down into Selendrile's face and found him genuinely smiling right back up at her. And then suddenly it was like the whole world froze and he was endlessly spinning her in the air. It could only have lasted seconds but it felt like an eternity was trapped in those seconds. She felt like she was flying, only this time instead of hanging in the blowing cool air surrounded by nothingness she was surrounded by music and bright colors and instead of wings it was her carefree happiness and heart which allowed her to float above Selendrile—Selendrile with the cut glass eyes that sparkled beautifully when they lit up with emotion—as he kept her safe from floating off with his reassuring grip. And in that moment she was gifted with happiness in his eyes, genuine happiness that he was sharing with her.

The moment ended as Selendrile put her down and had to look away to lead them off galloping around the circle again, but Alys refused to let go of the bubbly giddy feeling, just like her heart refused to stop feeling like it was about to beat right out of her chest. The rest of the dance felt effortless now, all she had to do was smile and look at Selendrile, and she floated and glided along. Everything was just so perfect—so many people all happy and healthy; it reminded her of everything she loved back at St. Toby's and best of all she was sharing something she had loved in her pre-witch accusation days with Selendrile, who had seen much more of what she hated and feared than what she had loved. Not to mention his close presence during the dance made her feel warm and safe, which definitely helped melt away all those pesky anxieties she had been dealing with. She couldn't stop smiling and even ended up laughing several times, like when the girls stopped to clap while the men had to do a pretend fight dance with their neighbors or when the girls were supposed to stomp, toss their hair, and then hold their heads up proudly while the men called out to them.

Though the dance was far longer than most of the other ones, especially considering it was a dance where you stuck with your dancing partner for the vast majority, it ended all too quickly. As Alys curtseyed during the final notes of the music she felt breathless and dizzy from the sudden drop off from her emotional high. Alys and Selendrile let themselves be carried off with the crowd as the mass migrated to watch a puppet show, but instead of paying any attention to it Alys found herself contemplating whether she would ever be able to duplicate that feeling again. Doubtful. She had thought actual flying was the best thing ever, but it was nothing compared to this. That happiness felt like it was external, like it could just as easily be taken away as granted. But this one had felt like something she had created for herself. Was this just what it felt like to forget all your worries and appreciate and love everything that was present in the moment? Maybe. Maybe she had just been so bogged down with unhealthy feelings recently that letting go was incredibly liberating.

A throat clearing brought Alys attention back to the present, and startled she looked up at Selendrile. From the impatient look on his face she guessed that the throat clearing had _not_ been his first tactic of getting her attention. "Oops sorry, I was staring off into space. What is it? Do you not like the puppet show?" she asked quietly, trying to make up for accidentally ignoring him previously while at the same time not disturbing the puppet show onlookers. "If you dislike it I guess we could leave…."

"Do you?" he asked back.

She couldn't tell from his voice whether that meant 'it's appalling, _you_ don't like it do you?' or 'I'm interested in how you feel about this show' or 'you're babbling about something and I can't be bothered to answer'. So Alys very articulately replied, "Uh well… you see I wasn't—I mean I don't want to leave yet so I thought—"

"Good because I was just trying to get your attention to give you this," he said cutting her off as a dark green scarf magically appeared and he wrapped it around her neck. Where had _that_ come from? Either Selendrile was exceptionally good at hiding things, or Alys was incredibly unobservant. Or both. "Happy birthday," he whispered to her, fingers lingering on the scarf as he said it before letting go and giving her an amused look. "Humans _do_ give gifts to each other on their birthdays do they not?" he asked lightly, tone devoid of any actual uncertainty. The question was probably more a remark on her response, which was to stare at him in awe.

"How? I mean they do, but how did you know it was my birthday?" Alys managed.

"You told me." Darn. It must be that blasted tea striking again. If she had started talking about her birthday to him while on the tea then that would explain him knowing about the Fall Festival.

Alys looked down at the scarf and stroked the soft warm knitted fabric. "It's lovely Selendrile," she honestly complimented before looking back up at him. "You didn't have to get me anything, thank you."

Selendrile looked triumphant for the briefest of moments before regaining his pleasant though unreadable normal composure. "Thought you might like it, you don't seem to like very fancy or nice things."

"I don't know whether to be insulted by that or not," she replied haughtily though with a smile, as they turned back to watching the puppet show.

"Don't be," he advised cheerfully.

Alys let out a nearly silent laugh as she shook her head. "Well anyways, thank you, I really do like it a lot," she said, giving him a little affectionate bump with her shoulder in thanks as she continued to play with the end of the scarf with her hands. She was pretty sure she saw the corners of his mouth tilt up ever so slightly, but he just continued to watch the puppet show. Alys tried to follow suit, but like before she still couldn't seem to focus her attention on it. She kept finding herself toying with the scarf and thinking about things like how she hadn't had this festive of a birthday in a long time (it was like she was a little kid again and birthdays were practically magical they were so special and joy filled) or how pretty all the glittering lanterns in the street were.

It was while she was contemplating all the pretty lanterns on the street that she noticed some movement in the corner of her eye. She turned to look at what the source was out of vague curiosity and immediately the residual happy warm feeling drained right out of her body.

"I'll be right back," she mumbled to Selendrile before slipping out of the crowd and heading towards the side street she had been watching. It couldn't be the Atherton doppelganger again could it? Well, it definitely _could_ be, but what were her chances of running into him again in a town this big? _Perhaps if I just get another good look at him I'll realize he doesn't look like Atherton really at all,_ Alys reasoned as she turned down another side street after the man. The street had several alleyways, but itself ended a short ways down from where she had turned onto it, and there was no sign of the man. This had been the right street she saw him turn on to hadn't it? Yes of course it was. So where did he go? Alys slowly started investigating the alleyways deciding that if she ran into the man she would pretend to be looking for her cat which ran off. Unfortunately despite having come up with a reasonable alibi the alleyways seemed to almost form a web in this area so her chances of having to use her alibi were dwindling by the second.

"What are you doing?"

Alys jumped about a foot in the air, though thankfully didn't scream, before whipping around and desperately motioning at Selendrile, "Shush, talk quieter!"

Selendrile seemed unimpressed by her urgency but he did lower his voice when he asked again, "Why are you all the way back here?"

Alys was about to demand back why he had followed her when she realized that she really should have known he would. He never stayed put when she intended him to, it was like he could _tell_ when she was up to something she hadn't told him about. So instead she whispered back, "I thought I saw someone I recognized so I tried following them but I lost them. I'm not even sure they—"

She was cut off when Selendrile abruptly clapped her mouth shut with his hand and pressed her back against the wall in the shadows of an alleyway, head tilted to the side as if he was listening to something. Alys on the other hand, didn't hear a thing. But seeing as Selendrile clearly did and still had a hand pressed against her mouth, there was nothing to do but wait and stare at the profile of his face. Or his neck. Alys strained her ears to try and pick up on what he was listening to, but it was futile. Not to mention she found the fact his body was only a few inches away from her own, warmth radiating off and warming her chilled skin, very distracting.

Selendrile at this point apparently decided she could be trusted to keep quiet on her own but he only removed his hand to place it on the other side of her head, keeping her trapped in the shadows between his body and the wall. Alys felt her pulse quicken but she couldn't tell if it was from having Selendrile's body practically pressed up against her own, or if it was from the odd response whatever Selendrile was listening to elicited from him. He always smelled so nice. How did he always smell so nice when to the best of her knowledge he never bathed? She certainly wouldn't smell so nice if she never bathed. Ah, there it was! Voices. Alys forced her distracted mind to get over the unusual proximity of Selendrile and focus on the voices instead. They weren't far away but they were talking quietly which made them hard to hear. "… the problem? ... thought… cleared that up…." Unfortunately, only one man's voice was carrying well enough for her to make out the words, she couldn't make out a thing that the other one was saying..

"…any man … protect his family… recruited …. dragon hunt…." Alys's head jerked up to look at Selendrile's when the words 'dragon hunt' were uttered, but he didn't react at all, just kept listening intently with a blank look on his face. Of course, unlike her he probably knew they were talking about dragons the entire time. Why else would he have started listening in the first place?

"… you listen? I already told you… particular dragon spends… human form. How much damage can…? …. just have to approach it when it's human." _Selendrile._ They were talking about Selendrile. Alys reached up to shake at his arm, but Selendrile apparently either came to this realization a while ago, or he didn't deem it worthy of a response since he didn't move a millimeter. But as she dropped her hand back down her fingers caught in the strings of her coin purse and the slight tug was enough to pull it off, purse clanking to the ground, and _that_ earned her a glare from Selendrile. Alys stared back at Selendrile wide eyed for a second before dropping her gaze down to the purse laying on the ground beside her before numbly thinking, _the strings must have come lose during all the dancing_. Unfortunately, the dropping coin purse didn't just serve to attract Selendrile's attention since she heard the louder man break off from whatever he was saying to go, "Did you hear that? It came from over there."

"Where?"

Alys shot a panicked look at Selendrile, but he had his head turned back towards the voices, looking thoughtful.

"Idiot, right there!" The voice sounded incredibly close now. Alys suspected they would come into view any moment now, but where could they hide in only a moment or two? Her panicking over what to do was cut short when Selendrile suddenly _did_ press his body against hers, crushing her body between the wall and himself, both of which were quite solid. But it turned out she didn't need to worry over how this interfered with her breathing ability since Selendrile promptly dropped his head down to brush a feather light kiss on her neck, right below her ear. And then another one. And another. And with each one he moved with more intensity than the last as if he really were a person overtaken by the passion for his lover in the nice quiet private alleyway. There wasn't any hope for Alys being able to breathe at all. In fact, she could barely stand. It felt like her legs had turned to dough and if not for Selendrile's body pressing her against the wall she would have slid all the way down to the ground. Heat flooded all over her body while her heart seemed unable to make up it's mind whether it wanted to stop completely or beat right out of her chest. She involuntarily gasped and threw her head back some from the shock of it, which coincidently only served to expose more of her neck to Selendrile's lips.

"In the shadows th—oh."

Selendrile looked up then over at the men who were talking, as if their last words had just startled him out of his previously assumed private loving administrations to his girl. "Oh it's just some young lovers who couldn't keep their hands off each other," the louder one remarked dryly. Alys had just enough time to glance up and see neither one of them was the doppelganger before Selendrile dropped his head back down blocking her view, only this time he brought his lips close enough to just brush against her skin and waited, listening to the men as they headed off. The second he deemed them a safe distance off he pulled away, and Alys realizing that at some point her hands had attached themselves to Selendrile's sides, dropped them down as if Selendrile were on fire. She was positive her face had gone redder than a tomato but Selendrile didn't pay her the least bit of attention. Without even a glance in her direction he strutted over to the corner of the alleyway to peer out around the corner into the side street, presumably after the men talking about _dragon hunting._

This was bad. Really bad. Not just because there were people talking about hunting a dragon, Selendrile. Oh no. Because what just happened brought everything into focus. She had noticed it as early as the wheelbarrow race, and again dancing, and again with the fountain; she had noticed it repeatedly but wrote it off as other feelings. Happiness, nostalgic comfort, freedom from stresses—but even she couldn't lie to herself after what had just happened. It wasn't just bad because people were going to hunt a dragon. It was bad because they were going to hunt the dragon that she was completely and helplessly in love with.


	8. Chap 8: Dragon Hunting

**Finding What's Eternal**

Chapter 8: Dragon Hunting

* * *

x.x.x.

_A/N: I apologize for the delay on this chapter. I don't really have an excuse... okay, I actually kind of do. I got completely **obsessed** with Teen Wolf. It was bad. But SO worth it. No regrets. Anyways- as always, I hope you enjoy! And if I don't post again in the very near future, Happy Holidays! Slash Happy New Year! And now I give you more Alys and Selendrile:_

x.x.x.

* * *

Summoning up all the willpower she had Alys forced herself to regain her composure and part with the wall just in time to see Selendrile to turn back around and strut over to her. "Well the good news is they didn't seem suspicious, the bad news is I think we missed the end of the puppet show, so all that's left is to head back," he remarked blandly, before turning and beginning to walk out of the alleyways.

It took Alys a moment to realize he was leaving. She couldn't believe it. Was he really going to act like nothing happened? Nothing? Because she could think of two things that seemed like they could used some attention devoted to them. "Selendrile!" she hissed before jogging to catch up to him. "Selendrile! Are we really not going to talk about what just happened?" she demanded grabbing at his shoulder to try and get his attention.

"Talk about what?" he asked as if he were genuinely confused as to what she was referring to, turning his head as he walked to look at her.

Alys involuntarily went bright red in the face again before firmly replying, "Oh I don't, how about the men that were just discussing dragon hunting for starters?"

"Oh that," he replied mildly. His tone was identical to one Hildy's slightly senile grandmother used to use whenever someone pointed out something off about her, like the time someone pointed out she was missing a thick strip of her dress, the entire length of the skirt- 'Oh that little tear? It just makes my dress more breezy darling-I'd forgotten all about it!' It made Alys want to grab his shoulders and rattle some sense in to him.

"Yes that," she hissed back as they turned onto a street that had people on it again.

"It happens occasionally," was his simple and infuriatingly calm response, complete with a little shrug. That's it. She was going to have to throttle him. Maybe that would get his brain working properly again. Selendrile glanced over at her, and after taking in her expression went, "So is that all you wanted to discuss?"

"We never discussed it!" Alys objected. "Any of it! Not what they said, or who they were, or how much attention they paid to your face, or what you did-"

"What I did?" he asked looking far too innocent and surprised. The little jerk. He was going to make her be the one to point it out. And explain it. And then, knowing him he would just state that he didn't understand why it was such a big deal and make her feel silly for even bringing it up. Fine two could play that game, if he was going to act like nothing happened, she could too.

"OR what they said after they saw us, or how you know they weren't suspicious of us," Alys pressed on.

"Why would they be suspicious?" _Yes why indeed_, Alys found herself thinking dryly. "They had no reason to see anything other than what they did. And all they talked about after they left was how one man didn't want to head home right away since his wife nags him."

Alys mentally threw her arms up in the air. She was going to get nowhere with him right now. Maybe after she let him think about on his own for awhile he would be easier to talk to about the dragon hunting bit. The kissing bit… that might be a lost cause. But even though only a few minutes had passed since the incident, Alys was feeling herself less and less inclined to bring it up, ever. But fortunately for her, they had just reached the town gates and were let out without any questions, presumably they weren't the only people who had come for the festival only.

It was completely dark out now so they only had to walk a little ways down the road to where it curved out of view before Selendrile could transform without attracting attention. They walked that ways in silence, Alys out of the principle of it, Selendrile possibly because he sensed her irritation or was thinking. As soon as they arrived back Selendrile just went into his part of the cave without ever transforming, which suited Alys just fine since she was tired and freezing; without the dancing to keep her warm the temperature was getting to her. It turns out that the water to the head might have actually been a problem if she had stayed out longer since judging by the current temperature, it was going to frost again tonight.

Alys pulled out one of her cloaks and threw it on, pulling up the hood over her wet head before crawling into her bed. He couldn't really be unconcerned about it could he? He had to be just putting on a front while he thought it over. Or maybe he just didn't want to act like it was a big deal so he wouldn't have to deal with _her _thinking it was a big deal. Or was he just that _arrogant_ that he couldn't perceive it as a threat? _Stupid dragon, even if you've dealt with worse you shouldn't treat them lightly_, Alys thought before looking down at the scarf he had given her which she had been absent mindedly fingering while she reflected. _Arrogant maybe, but he can be sweet too_, she found herself thinking while she marveled some at the scarf. He might have insulted her a little when he gave it to her, but his insult had implied he had thought about what she would like. Which meant he had paid attention to her reactions to other items in the past. Which implied that to some degree he _cared_ what her reactions were and would be. The logical part of Alys brain warned her not to get carried away, but Alys just smiled down at the scarf. It couldn't hurt to indulge in thoughts which made her feel warm and fuzzy for just one night.

x.x.x.x.

"What's this?" Alys asked looking into the little sack of things he had brought her. Selendrile shrugged while he came and sat by her near the fire. Despite the fact that Alys was bundled in a cloak and all he wore was his usual lose shirt and breeches, he certainly wasn't _acting_ like he was huddling against the fire for warmth. Which was exactly the reason Alys was there.

"You asked for it awhile back," was his uninterested response, before he leaned over to tend to her fire, apparently deeming it unsatisfactory.

"A while back," Alys echoed, searching her brain and coming up empty. Then a thought struck her. "Wait, this wasn't while I was on that tea was it?"

Selendrile looked up at her briefly before directing his attention back on the fire. In Selendrile body language that was as good as a 'why yes of course it was Alys, you are very clever'. Or more perhaps accurately, 'when _else_ would it have been?'.

"Selendrile, that was two weeks ago," Alys pointed out flatly. Was he _ever_ going to tell her everything about that night? Or was he just going to periodically drop surprises on her whenever it suited him? Stupid question, of course he was going to do the later. She was beginning to wonder what would be more embarrassing: getting high and not remembering any of it, thus being completely at the mercy of what he told her, or getting high and actually remembering all of it.

"I figured if you couldn't remember asking for it you wouldn't mind how long it took for me to get them for you," he replied nonchalantly, shifting back away from the fire and fixing her with his purple gaze.

"You—that doesn't…" Alys trailed off, unable to formulate an appropriate response under his calm gaze. "Well… thank you," she said awkwardly instead, giving up on coming up with a reason why his logic was flawed. Selendrile nodded and Alys peered once again at the little sack's contents. What in the world had she wanted with pink yarn? "You don't by any chance know why I uh, wanted these do you?" Alys asked hopefully, looking back up from the sack to Selendrile. He blinked at her. "Huh, that makes two of us," Alys surmised, peering at the bag one last time before setting it down and picking her plate back up.

"I wasn't sure how much you wanted. But judging from your basket weaving attempts I figured you might want a lot."

Alys was about to protest but remembering the comment he had made once before about her talking with her mouth full she decided the better of it. Instead she threw a piece of food at him for insulting her basket weaving and knitting abilities. The fact that her basket weaving abilities truly were terrible was inconsequential. Selendrile looked amused as it not only soared off to the side of him, but also fell far short. "No insults about my aim or you get more food thrown at you!" Alys hastily added after swallowing her food down, holding a warning finger up.

Selendrile held his own hands up in surrender good naturedly. "I wouldn't dare. After seeing the first throw, I know better."

Alys threw another piece at him. Selendrile chuckled a little as it flew between his hand and his head. "Air draft?" Selendrile offered with a smile.

"Indeed," Alys agreed. "You were _that_ close to getting hit in the eye," Alys emphasized pinching her fingers closely together and holding them up. "Thank your lucky stars there was a draft," she advised, spooning some food into her mouth.

"Lucky stars?" Selendrile echoed, smile slipping off his face as it was replaced with one of confusion and a tilt of the head.

"Yeah you know, it's an expression," Alys explained none too helpfully.

"I have 'lucky' stars?"

Oh he seemed so hopelessly perplexed on this one. Alys savored how cute it was for a moment before explaining in a more helpful way. "Yes you know, like good fortune. If you have a lucky charm, then that item supposedly brings you luck when you're with it. For instance, if I had … a button, that I had in my pocket the day I, er, won a contest, then I may think that button is a lucky charm, my lucky button. And I may carry it around with me because I believe if brings me luck. I guess based the saying we all have lucky stars each night looking out for us."

"So can a person be a lucky charm?"

"Hmm…" Yes good question, was that allowed? She had never really contemplated luck charms in this depth before. She supposed anything really could be, there weren't _rules_ about this sort of thing.

"For instance I joined you for the wheelbarrow contest and your team won so does that make me your lucky charm?"

"No! That was my lucky stars, humans can't be each other's lucky charms," Alys replied too quickly, earning her a grin from Selendrile. Well that conversation had certainly taken a turn in an unexpected direction. Eager to wipe the smug grin off of his face Alys added somewhat slyly, "And you know what else you can thank your lucky stars for? Having been present when those men accidentally warned you about them _hunting you_."

"But I was following you. Does that make you my lucky charm?"

Alys threw another piece of food at him while yelling, "People can't be each other's lucky charms!" This time the piece of food flew over his head and landed somewhere behind him, and his smug smile turned into a laugh. Oh, this was just getting worse. Alys's already present blush deepened as she shifted uncomfortably around. "Stop avoiding talking about it!" Alys commanded.

"Or you'll throw more food at me?"

"I could."

"Aren't you running a little low by now?"

"My plate then."

Selendrile looked dangerously close to laughing again. "Just miss the fire, that way the plate will probably survive."

"Selendrile I'm being serious!"

"So am I. I don't want to have to find you a new one."

"Arggghhhh," was Alys's frustrated response. This apparently was the tipping point for Selendrile, who started laughing again. Unfortunately for her, when he was being like this it was annoyingly hard for her to not end up smiling along as well. _Alright, change of tactics_, she thought as she stood up and stomped over to him. If pleading and commanding hadn't worked, then perhaps she could pester it out of him. It certainly worked for children all the time, why not her? Besides, Selendrile had already seen her in enough compromising situations that maintaining any sense of dignity was somewhat pointless. "I don't _have _to throw things at you. I can do this too," Alys said giving him her mightiest pinch on the arm as she knelt down beside him. "Let's talk about the dragon hunters," she urged.

Selendrile just raised an eyebrow at her as if to say, you really think that's going to hurt a dragon? Alys pinched him again. "Talk to me!" she demanded. Selendrile swatted her hand away good naturedly.

"Why does it bother you? Concerned about me?" he asked in such a way that it indicated that he thought it was silly for her to be concerned about a mighty dragon.

"About both of us," Alys replied haughtily, unwilling to outright fall into his trap by answering yes, which was undoubtedly the truthful answer. Selendrile just raised his eyebrow at her again, and remained silent. Alys went to pinch him again, but as he swatted her hand away she pinched him a couple of times in his side with her other hand. He tilted his head to her in almost a congratulatory style before turning slightly to face her and crossing his arms. Alys narrowed her eyes at him before launching a more aggressive fast paced pinching attack. Selendrile easily evaded the majority of her assaults, but undeterred by his constant swatting and slapping blocks she just kept pinching or poking in any place with any amount of force she could manage. After only getting in maybe five successful poke/pinches Alys began trying to swat or slap his hands back.

Suddenly realizing how close she had gotten to him during her assault Alys blushed again and abruptly stopped, trying to shuffle backwards. Selendrile used this opportunity to poke her rather hard in the shoulder which was enough to cause her to lose her balance and topple backwards. Given that she had already been crouched down it didn't hurt any to fall down, but she let out a little screech as she fell anyways, and made no efforts to get up. "Dra-ah-gon hu-un-ter-ers," she practically whined, though smiling, while poking him in the leg with her foot repeatedly.

Selendrile did one of his quiet laughs at her while he reached over and clasped her arm, yanking her back upright to a seated position. "What about them?" he finally asked in a resigned but pleasant enough tone.

Yes! All her efforts had paid off! If only she could find a more mature way to successfully go about things like this. "What are you going to do about them?" Alys asked, not skipping beat.

"Nothing, I'm not particularly concerned about them," he replied willingly enough.

"Why not? If I had people looking to kill me, it wouldn't matter who they were I'd still be at least _somewhat_ concerned."

"Even if they were five year olds with skinny sticks?" Selendrile challenged.

"You never know!" Alys objected.

Selendrile raised his eyebrows at her. Alys responded by stubbornly crossing her arms. Realizing that she had no intention of backing down Selendrile shook his head and explained "They didn't appear very knowledgeable. Besides, even if they did show up armed and expecting me in my natural form, and some of them knew how to fight, without a plan for trapping me they're unlikely to cause any serious damage."

Alright, so that sounded at least somewhat reasonable. But still. "Enough five year olds with enough skinny sticks can still do a lot of damage when there's only one of you," Alys muttered more for the heck of it than because she thought it would change his mind any. Selendrile shrugged, but as suspected, didn't seem all that convinced. "What do you mean by 'they don't seem all that knowledgeable'?"

Selendrile inclined his head at her a little before replying, "There are those who go about it in more clever ways."

Alys shook her head. Uh-uh, that wasn't going to fly. She had known him long enough to recognize the signs. If he wanted her to believe that's what he meant he shouldn't have inclined his head like that beforehand. That was a tip off that he was assessing her, figuring out just how little he could get away with saying, or what lie he could get her to believe, or what truth he could mislead her with. And if he was _that_ concerned with keeping it from her he would have disguised it better. Alys was positive he could keep things a secret from her if he chose too, not that she could _prove_ that…. "You're not being completely honest with me," Alys accused.

"Maybe," he admitted, watching her, deciding. "The ones which need to be avoided at all costs are those with the knowledge of the slayers of the old. Fortunately humans have mostly long forgotten," he finally said in an almost detached tone, shifting his eyes away from her as soon as he finished saying it.

"Thank you for being honest," Alys said, and then after a pause, "Er, so what exactly did that mean?" Selendrile just gave her one of his wouldn't you like to know smiles without ever really looking back at her. Alys sighed. It had been a long shot, but it never hurt to try. She had at least gotten him to explain why he wasn't concerned, what he had been listening for when they were eavesdropping, even if he had explained it fairly cryptically. Figuring his forthcoming mood was most likely spent up Alys just shifted to a more comfortable position, this time facing the fire.

"Figured out what the yarn was for yet?" Selendrile asked after a little while.

"Not a clue."

.x.x.x.x.

The next couple of days passed uneventfully. Selendrile returned back to his usual unpredictable visiting in human form schedule. Alys on her part spent half of her time savoring his visits, the other half trying to force sense into herself and subtly put up an emotional barrier between the two of them. If Selendrile noticed the sudden increases in cranky comments after kind gestures or the sudden increase in discomfort with close proximity or physical contact he showed no signs.

It was the nights, or rather, Alys's post-witch days definition of nights, that became eventful, for the weather had taken a brutal turn for the bitter cold. The first night that it got miserably cold Alys tried her best to make due. She bundled up in more cloths. She tried wrapping herself more tightly in her blankets. She tried dragging her bedding as close to the fire as she dared, only to wake up some time later once the fire had died even colder than before. She tried exercising as best she could without getting out of bed to warm up. But the end result was just staying mildly warm, and mostly awake. The second night that it was too miserably cold to sleep she had had enough already. Alys had always hated the cold, they had never seemed to have enough firewood to warm their tiny house, but even that had been better than _this_. It was the silly cave. The silly cave on a _mountain_. It practically sucked the warmth out of her, and being open to the outside in the front as well as one section of the ceiling, it seemed to pull that stolen warmth right off her and out of the cave. There was only one thing left she could think to do and she was too cold and too fed up to care about the consequences anymore.

Alys grabbed all of her blankets in one arm and a couple of the animal skins she slept a top of in the other arm and marched out of her room. She walked around Selendrile's curled up form, and finding a nice looking spot along his back, dropped her animal skins down, and then proceeded to curl up against his back, tucking herself beneath her multitude of blankets. Selendrile she had noticed, possessed the ability to remain warm no matter the temperature. It was like his fire producing abilities generated a constant heat within him that kept his skin, or scales in this case, warm no matter what. He also made an excellent wind shield. Alys was still adjusting her blankets when all the sudden she fell backwards from the sudden lack of Selendrile back.

"What are you doing?" Selendrile asked, annoyed face appearing against the backdrop of the ceiling.

"I'm freezing," Alys grumpily replied, rolling to her side and righting herself. "It's the stupid cave, it's freezing in here."

"Then sleep by your fire," Selendrile impatiently suggested.

"I tried that. I just end up hot when it's still burning and even colder once it stops," Alys curtly replied, finishing untangling the blankets which had never gotten fully untangled before her recent roll in them. Alys dropped them in a neat pile before standing up and stubbornly crossing her arms. "Believe me, I wouldn't be here if there were a better option. I've tried everything and I'm still miserably awake and miserably cold, and there's nothing you can say to make me go away because it can't be worse than freezing to death!"

Selendrile narrowed his eyes at her, clearly either annoyed or displeased, but Alys stood her ground, defiantly holding his gaze. What, was her presence next time him while sleeping going to insult him? After all the times he had made fun of her for insisting that they were 'not going to sleep together'? There was no way that it could be more insulting or embarrassing to him than it was to her. She was at the very peak of embarrassment doing this, her frustration and discomfort being the only things allowing her to manage it. And if he was concerned, though the eye squinting indicated otherwise, that he would roll over her and squish her in the night, well, at least if she was squashed she wouldn't be cold. Finally Selendrile seemed to back down for he icily commanded, "Don't move, and don't ever try sleeping against me without ensuring I notice you first," before taking a few steps away from her and transforming.

Alys did as she was told, standing her ground despite her instincts telling her move away as Selendrile's great hulking form shifted around her, eventually settling into his usual curled up position, but this time with Alys standing right where his neck joined his shoulder instead of near his back. After he laid down Alys wasted no time shifting her bedding material and hastily settled into the nook of his neck. After determining that Alys had done what she was told Selendrile stopped his glaring and finally lowered his head down to the ground. It wasn't hard to see why he had decided this was the best place for her. His scales in the neck-shoulder-chest region that she was tucked into appeared to be both smaller and softer than the scales on his back, and as she should have guessed given it was true for humans too, being this close to his heart this area was much warmer than his back. He also had her mostly enclosed, with his arms and neck partially wrapped around her, each laying on the ground not far from her body; this meant that not only was she guaranteed more warmth, but also if she was going to crushed by some part of his body, at least it was likely to be a small part of his body. Not that getting crushed by Selendrile's neck would be all that pleasant, but certainly her chances of survival if he did shift and roll over her while sleeping were greater than if she had been next to his back. All around it was a far more comfortable and safe location for her.

Alys pulled her blankets up around her as she thanked Selendrile and got what she imagined was the dragon equivalent of a grunt in response. Alys smiled and closed her eyes as she snuggled against him, savoring the warmth seeping into her, instead of out of her. Having her back leaning against what she imagined would be the collar bone region on a human, she was moved ever so slightly with each one of his slow breathes, but she was too sleepy at that point to mind, and within minutes, was asleep.

While sleeping against Selendrile had it's advantages, it definitely had it's drawbacks as well. Namely, Selendrile woke up whenever he wanted to wake up, and this was not usually when Alys wanted to wake up. This meant that she was awakened by a falling sensation as he moved away from her to get up, and that she had to reconstruct her bed in her own room in a half asleep state before being able to return to sleeping. Selendrile brought her another blanket later that day and Alys accepted it gratefully. While sleeping next to him had been a pleasant enough overall, she could do without the embarrassment. Not that she regretted her decision, she'd take it over freezing in bed wide awake any day, but it wasn't one she was eager to repeat either. Thankfully Selendrile didn't mention her sleeping with him, since she was pretty sure if he said those words while in human form she would die from humiliation. She was content to let her mind incorrectly think of dragon and human Selendrile as two separate beings in this particular case.

But while the additional blanket helped, it wasn't a cure all. Only a few days after receiving it the temperatures dropped even more and once again Alys found herself awoken by the cold. She thought about possibly trying some of her previous tactics to get warm, after all, she had another blanket at her disposal this time, it could work. But after only contemplating it for a moment or two Alys sighed. It was no use. She already knew how successful those tactics were. She also already knew how successful the other option was. Alys sighed again. The damage was already done, if she had done it once then she might as well do it again.

"So much for a mild winter," Alys muttered standing up and gathering her bedding. Thankfully Selendrile was sleeping in the cave again tonight. _I wonder if he sleeps more here when it's cold out_, Alys found herself thinking as she crept up to Selendrile's sleeping form. Upon reaching him it occurred to her that she was actually supposed to wake him up. Alys paused briefly to consider this before briskly thinking to herself, _no matter, I'm sure I'll accidentally wake him just trying to get where I'm supposed to go_. Sure enough as she crawled over one arm that was blocking her from where he had indicated she should sleep Selendrile awoke, opening one eye long enough to eye her irritably and make a growlly-rumble, before returning to sleeping. Or studiously ignoring her, but either way, Alys figured she had the go ahead and hunkered down against him.

Selendrile apparently had accepted the situation, since he didn't bother to bring her any more blankets after that. Alys always _tried_ to sleep through the night in her own bed, but she had inconsistent success and found herself turning to Selendrile for warmth relatively often. By the fourth time she did this Selendrile took to just a growl to indicate he knew she was there. On the ninth time she did it, she didn't get a growl at all. Alys sat there uncertain what to do for a second. She had been questioning whether he was waking up anymore already, but at least she got the standard growl, even if it was continually getting less and less threatening each time. But this time, this time as she leaned in against him he had let out a noise that sounded almost like a… purr. As in, a friendly noise. A _pleased_ noise. Did dragons dream? She knew they didn't seem to have nightmares, but that didn't mean they couldn't have dreams. Was it possible he was just dreaming—like the dogs who let out little whines when they slept? But before Alys could ponder his state of mind or whether or not she should try to wake him any Selendrile shifted, wrapping his neck closer around her and pulling his arm closer in. Judging from the way he moved she was fairly certain he wasn't in fact awake, but at the same time his movements has also seemed like they were deliberately encircling her. Alys sat there frozen for a moment, undecided what to do. Between the fact Selendrile almost seemed to have tucked her in against himself and the now reassuring movement of his slow even breaths she felt… cradled. And with that thought Alys let herself drift off back asleep.

Alys awoke abruptly. Something was wrong. It took her sleepy mind a few extra seconds to process that the usual awakening sensation of Selendrile suddenly moving away from her was this time accompanied by a vibration. It took her sleepy mind another few seconds to realize that the source of the vibrations was in fact Selendrile. He was growling at such a low volume and pitch, that she felt it more than heard it. Alys scrambled up once she realized this—was he mad that she hadn't woken him? Alys opened her mouth to apologize and stopped, for she had _finally_ bothered to note where Selendrile was. He wasn't paying her any attention at all; he was crouched on all fours close to the ground with his head low like an angry cat, staring straight out the cave.

"Selendrile?" Alys hesitantly whispered, a sickly uneasiness beginning to spread through her. Selendrile didn't move, but his vibrating growl did stop. Had it been just to warn her of something? Alys tiptoed over to stand beside his lowered neck and tried to peer out the entrance of the cave. It was far too dark for her to see anything, but she didn't hear anything. "Selendrile? Is it… is it dragon hunters?" she whispered, trying to guess what it was that was upsetting him.

He swung his head around to look at her for a second, before turning it slightly back so that his ear was aimed at the cave entrance. Was that a yes? She wished she knew how to read his body language in dragon form. Alys chewed her lip while she tried to think quickly. "Selendrile," she whispered, reaching her hand out to touch his jaw to make sure she got his attention. He swiveled his head back around and fixed her with those giant purple eyes. She only wasted a second on wishing she could read his dragon form expressions before urgently whispering, "Transform into something ordinary and small. Let me handle it."

The head went to swivel away again. Well, she certainly didn't have to understand him all that well to see what he thought of _that_ plan. Determined to make him hear her out Alys's hand whipped out to try and catch his turning head, fingers wrapping around the far side of his muzzle. She hadn't quite taken into account the strength difference and stumbled a little to the side as his face pulled her along a short distance before he stopped turning. Selendrile brought his face back to stare at her. Was it just a trick of the little available light or did his eyes almost seem to gleam now? Alys swallowed and launched into her explanation, refusing to admit he might be mad at her now. "They know you can appear as a male human, maybe even what you look like. Seeing us in the cave might seem suspicious even if they don't recognize you. Let _me_ handle it. If it looks like things are going badly you can step in to help."

When she finished for a second she thought she had spoken too quickly for him to understand, but she decided it best to not give him an opportunity to _not_ agree. She ran over to grab the bag of his cloths before grabbing up her bedding and racing into her room. She threw her bedding in the direction of her bed and dropped the bag on the floor, hoping that some of his cloths fell out in the process. She then groped the wall until she found one of the torches, and raced back, nearly colliding face first into Selendrile. She waited until he turned to face her before holding the torch as far away from herself as possible, squinting her eyes shut and waiting. Selendrile waited just long enough for her to wonder whether or not he was going to help before obliging her silent request and blowing just enough fire on the torch to light it. Alys then took off as fast as she could with the torch back into her room, silently praying that Selendrile's hearing was better than she thought it was, or that the people climbing up the mountain were far slower at it than she was at night. Or that Selendrile would even go along with her plan for that matter. He hadn't exactly agreed, but then again, he hadn't exactly disagreed either.

Alys quickly set to throwing everything sitting out into baskets or chests, trying to make her residence in the cave look as temporary as possible. She then grabbed up a heavy frying pan and headed to the entrance of the cave, pausing to listen. She heard… cursing. A man cursing. Ha! Apparently, she wasn't the only on who had an awful time trying to get up this mountain in the dark.

She waited until she thought they were close to the entrance before she stepped out of the cave holding her torch high. "Osgood is that you?" she called out.

Two men appeared in the dim light of her torch, both looking highly startled. They both fumbled and pulled out small daggers, and Alys on her part whipped out the frying pan. Thank goodness she didn't have to _act_ being scared. It came all on it's own.

"You're not Osgood," she said waving her frying pan at them a little. "What are you doing here? Are you bandits? Did you do something to Osgood?"

"Who the hell is Osgood?" one of them muttered, shifting his stance to a more sturdy one. Not that a 'sturdy stance' was all that achievable on the side of this particular mountain, which was more like a rock slide waiting to happen.

"My, um, husband. We've caused no harm to you, we don't even have a roof above our heads to call our own so take pity and leave us in peace." Alys watched them warily as they processed this. One of the men brushed past her, knife still out to go in and investigate the cave.

The other man surveyed her right back for an extra moment or so before going, "Huh, found ourselves some elopers," and lowering, though not putting away, his knife.

"Some wealthy elopers," the man from within the cave called back, apparently having found her room. The man still outside with her shot her a look before sliding past her as well and entering the cave. Alys followed slowly, pausing in the entrance of her own cave room, not far from where the first man was now standing, while the second man was investigating her room now.

"This is an awful lot of belongings this high up a mountain. How've you been traveling with it? How did you get it here?" second man asked suspiciously.

"Donkeys," Alys answered, and then hoping to deter any further questions she added defiantly, "I don't expect you lot went up the easiest way either."

"Where are the donkeys?" Drat. Plan failed.

"Tied up… elsewhere. Where no one will find them and steal them," Alys replied finally, hoping that they would take her long pause as reluctance to answer, and not the lack of an available answer. "Certainly not where they can go to the bathroom in the same place as we sleep," she added just for good measure.

First man wasn't paying to much to her story, he apparently had only been paying attention to her since his response was, "She certainly don't look like the wealthy one. What, convinced the man you weren't good enough just on the side, had to be the main dish?"

Alys tried to ignore him and watch the second man, whom seemed like both the less inclined towards violence and the smarter one. Unfortunately she wasn't sure the smarter bit didn't make him the more dangerous one. Annoying second man wasn't done yet though. "Not that special lookin'," he decided, looking her over up and down. Then he took another step towards her and said, "perhaps it was other traits that convinced him."

Alys turned her face away from him and gripped her frying pan harder. She wondered where Selendrile was and what he made of this situation. She was caught between hoping he deemed it threatening enough to intervene and hoping that he either wasn't paying attention or deemed it under her control, because she wasn't sure she would like Selendrile's idea of intervening.

It wasn't Selendrile or herself that came to her own rescue from the uncomfortable situation though, it was second man. "Leave the girl well enough alone. There are men's cloths here and a book so presumably one of them is in fact wealthy enough to read—so for now her story checks out well enough and doesn't match what we're here for."

"Just having myself a bit of fun," first man said grumpily, not all that pleased with his co-workers assessment of the situation.

"Too cold for that," second man replied gruffly, shoving first man in the shoulder in the direction of the cave entrance. And like that the two of them left. Alys stood against the wall until she seemed to have control over her heart rate again, and then walked out into the cave entrance to try and see how far they had gone. Going down was far easier than going up though, and the two men were already nearly out of earshot.

"See? Handled that fairly well didn't I?" Alys said as soon as she noticed that Selendrile was standing near her.

"Could have saved yourself a lot of trouble and potential danger if you just pushed them down the side of the mountain," Selendrile replied un-phased. "A fall and a push don't look all that different."

Alys frowned over at him. "Yes well I'll keep that in mind next time I feel like killing some people," she replied sarcastically. "Which will be never," she quickly clarified seeing that Selendrile seemed like he was considering it. "You don't think they suspected anything do you? That they may come back?" she then asked a little worried.

Selendrile shrugged. "They still have to get down the mountain. There's still time for them to fall." Alys looked over at him horrified before she realized that he was joking. "They didn't seem all that suspicious but I wouldn't put it past them to come back and check up on things," Selendrile answered more seriously.

Alys watched his face. He didn't seem all that concerned by the prospect of them coming back, potentially with more men, but then again when _had_ he seemed concerned? The only time he had acted threatened was when he was trying to get her to wake up. "Soooo…" Alys prodded, uncertain on what his thoughts on the matter really were.

Selendrile shrugged again. "Sooo," he said, copying her own response, "it doesn't matter anyways," he finished.

Wait, what? "It doesn't matter?" Alys asked bewildered.

"No, it doesn't matter," Selendrile replied finally turning back to face her again with a slight smile. "Because I had already been thinking it was about time we moved."


	9. Chap 9: The Decision

**Finding What's Eternal**

Chapter 9

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_.x.x.x._

_A/N: Happy Holidays! So this chapter involves less dialogue and more of Alys thinking, but as you might guess from the title, there's a reason for that! I didn't actually do much re-reading of this, so I'm sorry if they're a bunch of typos. As always, feel free to comment, it's always appreciated even if it's just about my typos :)_

_.x.x.x._

* * *

"This is it?" Alys demanded, twisting around to get a good look at Selendrile.

Selendrile looked at her like she was an idiot.

"This is where we're living? From now on?" Alys demanded again.

"For now," Selendrile replied vaguely.

Good enough. A broad grin broke out on Alys face as she took off running towards their new abode. A house. An actual house. A real, normal, human residence. Alys burst through the door into the farm house and paused to take it all in.

"Oh Selendrile, it's wonderful!" Alys exclaimed, whirling around to face him.

"Not quite as large as I would have liked," Selendrile admitted, clearly un-phased by Alys's excitement.

"What are you talking about, this is huge for a farm house," Alys replied, waving her arms around her as she added, "huge!"

Selendrile quirked an eyebrow up at her as he pointed at himself. Alys allowed herself to frown at him a moment in sympathy before the excitement took back over. Right, so maybe it wasn't that large if you happened to be a rather large creature, say a dragon, who spent much of it's time in said dragon form. But from her point of view, the place was like a palace. Granted, that could have something to do with the fact that her last living arrangement had been a cave. And the one before that had been a small one roomed house where her father and her slept on pallets. But this house had a separate bedroom. And if her eyes didn't betray her, that little bedroom had a bed in it. Not a mattress. A _bed._ In sum, palace.

"Wait a second," Alys said, suddenly realizing what she should have asked first if she had had any sense, "what about the family that lived here?"

Selendrile rolled his eyes at her. Alys blinked at him. Had he really just rolled his eyes at her? Selendrile? He seemed to wait while she opened and shut her mouth like a fish on land trying to formulate some response and right when she was about to finally blurt out the clever response of 'did you just roll your eyes at me?' he pointed over at a wall. "I suspect they took off not long after that section of wall caught on fire," he replied sounding bored.

The part of the wall he was indicating wasn't just burnt, it was _missing. _ And had been covered by a couple overlapping layers of heavy looking sheets of cloth which were hanging from the ceiling and forming a puddle of cloth along the floor. "Fire?" Alys echoed whipping around to face Selendrile once again. "A fire? Along the wall without the fireplace?" She asked, not actually accusing him, but saying it in the most accusing way possible none the less.

Selendrile looked at her in wide eyed innocence, a human expression Alys suddenly decided he used far too often. "Judging by the state of the rest of the place I imagine it couldn't have happened too long ago," he said thoughtfully, as if the idea that she was accusing him of something hadn't even occurred to him.

Alys narrowed her eyes at him.

"Should be much warmer here," he added, giving her a sidelong glance.

He had her there and knew it. Alys couldn't help the smile which appeared on her face on it's own accord. It _would_ be warmer here. Despite the partially cloth wall, the house would retain heat better, and being at a lower elevation would have less wind and higher temperatures. And most importantly, as she began snooping around she found there was a small fire place in the bedroom, along with good shutters and sturdy curtains covering the window. It occurred to her that this might be the very reason Selendrile picked this place. While he could probably get in and out of the house via the cloth wall during the day, she could wall herself up the bedroom at night and not suffer any of the consequences. If Selendrile _was_ responsible for the fire, she had to admit it was a fairly clever plan on his part.

Hearing movement in the other room Alys headed out of the little bedroom to find Selendrile moving the little wooden table out of the center of the room and over to the wall next to the jutting out fireplace, presumably maximizing space for his dragon form. Alys grabbed up one of the chairs and carried it over to the table. As she set it down she plucked at some hay which had stuck to her dress. While Selendrile was capable of putting her down on the ground, dropping her into haystacks was clearly easier for him, and thus his favorite form of depositing her (there may have been other factors involved too). When they had first moved to the cave depositing her had proved somewhat challenging. He could neither drop her down or land holding her up given the limited space. This resulted in a couple of clumsy landings and a rather haughty Selendrile at first. After awhile they had discovered that it worked best if he put her down with his hind foot, she immediately crouched down since he was still beating his wings hovering, and then he would semi-swoop in, just past where Alys crouched.

"I wouldn't bother."

"Huh?" Alys asked, startled out of her reflection on Selendrile's various landing techniques.

"All your belongings are going to land in the same place you did."

"Oh," Alys said, looking down at the strands of straw she had plucked off of her dress. "Well then," she replied brightly, "in that case let's get started filling this house up!"

.x.x.x.

Once again Alys was amazed by how strategic Selendrile's housing choice was. The abandoned farmland, or rather field dotted with a couple haystacks, was surrounded by woods on all sides. This isolated the property from any prying eyes, despite its relative proximity to a road. This little road, only about a twenty minute walk from the house (there was a cleared cart path leading to this little road, but apparently a couple trees had 'mysteriously' fallen down to block the cart path), met up with a larger road around two hours walking distance from the town. Judging from what Selendrile told her, if she were to walk down the larger road in the opposite direction from the nearby town, she would eventually end up at the town they went to Fall Festival together at. For the first time since Alys had been with Selendrile she had both access to other human establishments and the knowledge of how to get there. A small part of her couldn't help wondering if Selendrile had previously prevented this from happening, that he had purposely inhibited any independence on her part. But the thought felt so wrong, so distrustful, that she quickly dismissed it. Besides, Alys couldn't even think of an adequate reason for him to have done that; it only made sense that given more time Selendrile was able to find a better living arrangement.

Surprisingly the farm house wasn't far from her garden either. If her and Risa had just wandered in a slightly different direction that one day they would have actually found this house. This no doubt, was also intentional on Selendrile's part. Conveniently this meant Alys could continue to meet up with Scampers and Risa as if nothing had happened. This time though, she made no attempts to force Scampers into the house. He had so hated all her attempts to get him to live in the cave that she figured there was no point with the farm house either—the deterrent was no doubt the dragon, not the type of shelter.

It had taken a couple days to meet up with Risa considering the girl typically waited by the creek for her but eventually Alys found her again and explained that meeting by the garden would be better. Risa of course, demanded to know why. Alys gave the awkward excuse that a well that had been being dug had finally been completed so she no longer had any need to go to the creek. It wasn't exactly a lie, there was a well right outside of the house so she didn't actually need to go to the creek, but at the same time it was far from the truth. Alys figured in this case, the lie was better than the truthful explanation of 'I used to live in a cave by the creek but we recently moved to an abandoned farmhouse that my friend might have forced the previous tenants out of by burning part of it down'. It turned out that Risa didn't care what the explanation was really she just wanted to hear an answer, so despite Alys poor delivery of the lie, Risa only shrugged and told her they were going to play hide and seek now.

After playing hide and seek for nearly two hours Alys finally, wearily headed home. How was it that Risa was better at the game than her? Sure Risa was smaller, but children are usually notorious for picking obvious hiding places! Risa on the other hand seemed to melt right into the woods, and sniff Alys's hiding spot out like a blood hound. It was downright frustrating. Alys tried to think back to her youth—had she been particularly bad at hide and seek as a child? No, she was pretty sure she had been fairly average at the game, it was unlikely that she was unusually _bad_ at it and that was the problem. Risa _had_ to be just unnervingly good at hide and seek.

Alys emerged from the woods and looked up at the suddenly visible sky. The sun was dipping low on the horizon, but sunset had yet to begin, the sky just a graying blue waiting to streaked across with vivid colors. That had been one nice thing about the cave, she could watch the sunset perched high above everything essentially right outside the 'front door'. Alys glanced at the haystack right in front of her. It was no mountain top, but at least it would be comfortable, and warmer than sitting on the ground. Alys walked around it and somewhat clumsily climbed halfway up. There she began positioning herself, trying to make a small straw pit for herself to comfortably sit in. In the midst of executing perhaps the most effective and simultaneously most un-ladylike technique of developing a seat in the hay, wiggling her rear-end into the haystack, something caught her eye. It was an old woman, walking up to the side of the house.

Alys considered yelling out to the lady, but stopped when she realized the old woman was purposely striding forward—almost as if she was already looking at the thing she was heading for. But nothing was on the side of the house, save the cloth wall. The old woman stopped near the side of the house, just close enough to the front corner that Alys could still make her out and… and started talking? Alys leaned forward in the haystack trying to get a better look. There was no denying it though, the old lady's mouth was definitely moving, her head nodded and she smiled while her mouth wasn't moving, she said something else and gestured off in the distance, she put her hand to her chest and gave an embarrassed looking laugh—the lady definitely was having a conversation with _someone_. But that was impossible. It was too early for Selendrile to turn human, and… no one else could be lingering at the side of their house could they? The thought was unsettling, so Alys racked her brain for another explanation. Perhaps the lady was touched in the head a bit, and was simply having a conversation with herself? But just as Alys thought that the elderly woman reached her arm forward, and though her arm became obscured from Alys view by the house, it looked almost like she was patting someone or something. She then smiled, removed her hand, waved goodbye, and started walking away, behind the house, in the direction of the cart path.

Alys sat there a moment uncertain. What exactly had she seen? What exactly should she _do_? There were really only three possible explanations- Selendrile _could_ change human while the sun was still up, the lady was talking to no one, or the lady was in fact talking to a stranger standing by the house. The first was impossible, the second was unlikely, the third was also unlikely, but worrying. Deciding that it was best to act with caution, Alys grabbed her little basket and ran parallel to the farm house until she was almost even with the corner. She paused to quickly brush some of straw off her bottom, and then began to slowly walk towards the side of the house.

Alys didn't know what she had expected to see, but was a little disappointed when she saw _nothing_. Only pausing a second, Alys hurried along the length of the side and looked around the back of the house. Nothing. Alys scanned the fields around the house. Again nothing. The old lady was just entering the woods at the closest point, where the cart path was, but presumably she wouldn't have waved goodbye to someone heading the same way as her, so if there had been someone else, where could they have gone? No one could have disappeared that quickly, could they have? Alys briefly considered running after the elderly woman to ask her… what exactly? If she had been talking to anyone or if she was talking to someone she imagined? And what reason could Alys use for asking? That she had claimed the abandoned house for her own and was concerned about privacy in her stolen house, because she happened to share it with a creature of the fey? What if the old lady knew the people that lived here before? Alys shook her head, completely at a loss for what to do.

The sun was setting now, but Alys had lost her desire to watch the sunset, especially since she was right by the house now, and her haystack was much further away. With a sigh Alys headed back around to the front of the house. Alys opened the door and immediately froze. Selendrile was _inside._ The old lady had been _right outside the cloth wall_ and Selendrile was curled up _inside_ the house, right by the_ wall_.

Selendrile's neck started to lift, and realizing that her standing in the doorways was probably what had sparked his interest, Alys quickly stepped in and turned to shut the door. When she turned back around Selendrile was looking back over his shoulder, regarding her.

"Hello," Alys greeted. Selendrile of course, made no attempt at responding, or even acknowledging that he heard her. Suddenly desperate to do something seemingly normal after her awkward entrance, Alys hurried over to the fireplace to start a fire before the last remains of dim light disappeared from the house. Selendrile had to have been in the house when the lady came by, and Alys had no doubt that even if he had been sleeping he would have heard her. But he didn't seem alarmed, he looked like he was trying to sleep. What if the woman had decided to look through a window? Alys brushed the thought away. It didn't happen, so there was no point pondering what would have been the end result of that. At least Selendrile's presence in the house meant he would know what had happened.

"You're smothering it."

He was right, she had piled too many thick pieces of wood on top of the fire too quickly while not entirely paying attention to what she was doing. Alys removed a couple pieces before trying to casually open up the conversation by asking, "Did anything unusual happen today?"

When he didn't immediately reply Alys glanced back at him to find him straightening the shirt he had clearly just pulled over his head. He looked up at her blankly. Alys watched him for a few seconds to make sure he wasn't going to offer any other response before turning back to fire. That was a no. Perhaps a more direct question would be needed to entice the information out of him. As she re-arranged a couple pieces in the fire Alys rethought her tactic. She couldn't put her finger on it exactly, but for some reason she didn't want to ask him directly about what she saw. "I saw an elderly woman walking around here," she said carefully while she placed a larger piece of wood in the fire. "She didn't stop by the house did she?"

Alys shifted the fire again before glancing back at Selendrile again. His face was completely expressionless this time as he replied, "She didn't come anywhere near here." He seemed to be purposely holding her gaze, but Alys glanced away quickly after that response. That was a lie, there was no way around that.

"Glad to hear it," Alys replied as she finished with the fire and stood up, brushing little bits of ash off her dress front. Alys walked over to the shelves to grab her children's book before sitting down on a pillow that she had left by the corner of the fireplace. She opened the book to read but her mind was elsewhere. Why was Selendrile lying to her? Best case scenario, he had been asleep and was unwilling to admit he didn't know. Worse case scenario, he _was_ the person the woman was talking to, and he was in fact capable of changing form in the daylight. But why would he lie about that? And there was no way around the fact he _had_ been dying as sunrise approached that one morning. There didn't seem to be any point in lying about _why_ he was dying, it wasn't like the reason for it would have affected her attempts to save him. Alys tried to tell herself that the idea was all in her head, that there was no _proof_ yet that this was what his lying indicated, but even so she couldn't help feeling a bit betrayed.

Alys glanced over at Selendrile, who was now reading a different book that he had somehow procured, fire light flickering across his face and causing his hair to gleam. This was the way she had always seen him, in lamp lit rooms, in torch light or in the gray light of dusk. But if he had lied to her, if he could change form in the day as well, then it _would_ be possible for her to see him in the natural daylight. She tried to imagine what he would look like—would the natural light make his pale gold hair gleam more, or would it wash it out? What about his skin? She had always thought his skin looked sun-kissed, but in the light maybe it would be paler; it certainly wasn't browned the way a farmer's skin was. And though she always attempted to not look at him when he wasn't fully clothed, she couldn't deny that she hadn't noticed the way his body looked—the way his body only appeared gracefully sculpted when he was just standing there completely relaxed, lean yet sturdy, the way his lean muscles rippled to the surface when he moved, revealing that he was in fact incredibly strong. Would the bright light be enough to hide the muscle definition unless he was tensing the muscles? She tried to think about what it did other men, such as the blacksmith. But blacksmiths developed bulky muscles just making them look thick everywhere; though they _looked _stronger than Selendrile, they never achieved the same type of muscle definition. Besides, she hadn't seen enough men without their shirts on to really compare their appearances to Selendrile's.

Would the bright light soften the angles of his face, making him look younger and warmer? The way his face looked when he rewarded her with one of his radiant smiles that reached all the way into his eyes, crinkling the corners? He had a strong face, undeniably masculine despite it's seemingly impossible beauty. It was one of the many amazing things about Selendrile, the way he managed to have such a beautiful face without looking feminine in the least. And his eyes… would the light make them more expressive, less like cut glass? Would it hide or enhance the mischievous twinkle in them that she had come to love so much? Despite having become much more expressive over the past couple months, he could still easily cut off all emotion from his eyes, a daily reminder that he was not in fact human. Perhaps it was less him sharing more emotion with her and more her having just gotten better at interpreting them though. Alys felt a sudden pang in her heart when she realized she hadn't questioned his honesty with her in a while. Sure she had wondered about small things, but almost immediately after he had invited her to stay with him she had stopped questioning his motivations, his intentions, his trust. She hadn't pondered those, and as such he _could_ have been lying this entire time about his transformation abilities and Alys would never have noticed because she hadn't been _looking_ for any signs.

Suddenly it dawned on her that the very eyes she had been contemplating were staring back straight at her. Dear lord, how long had he been watching her blatantly staring at him? For that matter, how long had she been _staring_ at him? _Oh god_, Alys thought, _what has my face looked like this entire time?_ Maybe he had only just looked up. Maybe her face had looked blank, and he would have no way of guessing what she had been doing. She desperately needed a reason to have been caught staring at him.

"Do you sleep more when it's cold?" she asked, blurting out the first question she could think of. Immediately she felt like slapping herself in the forehead. Why couldn't she have thought of something normal to ask, that fit the situation? How hard was it to ask something like 'how is your book?'

Selendrile shrugged. "The more I sleep the less I need to eat. It can be a useful tactic at times."

"Ah. Just something… I had been wondering is all," Alys explained awkwardly. _Brilliant Alys, way to pull off acting normal_, she scolded herself. She felt the need to sigh again, she was really on a roll tonight. If it hadn't been so early she would have been tempted to just go to bed early and cut her losses.

Unfortunately, this was apparently what Selendrile decided to do since he shook his head and stood up removing his shirt in one fluid movement before starting on his pants.

"Ah! Jeez Selendrile, would it kill you to warn me before you do that?" Alys exclaimed, holding her hands up and turning away.

"I don't see why I should," he replied somewhat darkly, but Alys was too flustered to take much note.

"Because… because—oh we've already been through this before!" she replied, floundering for words. "It's indecent!"

"You were more than willing to sleep next to me. I wasn't wearing any cloths then," he challenged, sounding quite annoyed.

Alys knew that if she had any brains she would keep her mouth shut; Selendrile was giving clear signs he wasn't in the mood. She had already somehow upset him even though she wasn't sure how exactly. Instead she unwisely blurted out, "That's different!"

She didn't have long to contemplate how that was exactly the wrong thing to say to him though because he immediately strode over to where she sat. Alys tried to turn away, thus avoiding looking at him naked, but he bent down and somewhat roughly pulled her up to a standing position. "How is that different?" he demanded.

Alys tried to turn away again, but he just grabbed her upper arm and forced her to turn and face him. "How is that different?" he demanded again, louder this time.

Alys tried looking towards the ceiling off to the side of his head instead while she tried to think of a response. Usually she tried to keep her eyes firmly on his face at times like these, but looking him in the eye when he was angered, no matter how slightly, made her uncomfortable.

"Look at me and answer the question!" He commanded, releasing his bruising grip on her upper arm and taking a step back as she did.

"Because you weren't human then!"

"_I'M NOT HUMAN NOW_!"

Alys winced. "Yes but in some very important ways you sort of are-"

"Does being around male pigs make you uncomfortable?"

"Wh-what?"

"How about male horses? Or mules?"

"I don't understand what you're getting at," Alys said weakly, trying to not shrink back from his angry face.

"'Some very important ways' right Alys?" he said almost mockingly, one hand vaguely motioning at himself. Alys did shrink back then, turning her head as far away as she dared. "It doesn't matter what form I'm in, I'm still a dragon. Ever harbor any romantic or indecent thoughts towards male livestock? Or worry that they are towards you? _It's the same thing._ _I'M NOT HUMAN._"

He had stepped forward as he yelled at her and now stood less than a foot away, glaring angrily down at her, clearly waiting for a response. Alys swallowed. "I understand. I'm sorry—I… it's just hard to not feel uncomfortable anyways. But I understand," she managed.

Selendrile remained glaring at her long enough to make her feel uncomfortable before he slowly backed away and finally transformed. Alys bent down to pick up her book and attempted to flee to her room with as much dignity as she could manage. Once safely shut inside she leaned back against the door and shut her eyes. How had the night gone so spectacularly awry? It went from her being worried that strangers had discovered their house, to thinking that Selendrile had been lying to her, to staring at him like a lovesick child, to somehow having angered an absurdly cranky Selendrile into painfully explaining the complete lack of romantic possibility between the two of them. No, she didn't want to think about it. There was no way that trying to make sense of the night would make her feel any better; it could only lead to her feeling worse. What she needed was a distraction. Alys looked down at the kids book in her hand. That was one thing reading was very good at doing.

.x.x.x.

The next day Alys woke up fairly early, probably due to the hour she had gone to bed. A long sleep hadn't exactly done anything to heal her frazzled nerves though. What she needed was space. She needed to go elsewhere, someplace that didn't have Selendrile's presence stamped all over it. Someplace like… the town. Selendrile had explained how to get there had he not? Surely he wouldn't be upset with her if she went. Though judging from his rather unprovoked tirade last night she couldn't really be sure of anything with him.

Alys glanced over at the little table beside her bed where she stored the coin purse that Selendrile had given her. She could just go and buy a few things from the market. Extra food never hurt… Alys grabbed the coin purse.

Alys immediately felt better as she walked into town. The independence and exercise felt good, and being surrounded by other humans felt even better. She wandered around aimlessly for a little while soaking it up, before heading towards the market. She wasn't exactly looking for anything so she just decided to just look at _everything_ instead. She was just looking at some leather goods when something else caught her eye. Alys jerked her head up just in time to see a familiar shape disappear into the crowd. No it couldn't be the doppelganger. Not again. This wasn't even the right _town_. Alys hurried into the crowd trying to follow the figure of the Atherton doppelganger. Realizing that she was going to lose him Alys decided to change her tactic.

"Excuse me," she said to the nearest person to her without even looking to see who they were, "do you happen to know who that man—oh." Alys broke off when she saw who she was talking to. "Hamo, what…"

Hamo squinted at her, trying to place who exactly she was. "Uh… oh! I recognize you! It starts with a Keh… key… kah…."

"Keina," Alys supplied.

"Ah that's right! Keina, of course! How are you lass?" he asked giving her a solid thump on the back which made her stumble forward a bit.

"Alright," Alys replied caught between enjoying the fact that someone actually seemed happy to see her and being frustrated that she had lost her opportunity to find out more about the doppelganger. "How are you?"

"Oh I'm doin' fine. You were askin' why I'm in this town weren't you? There's a fabulous wood carver here, and while he doesn't make much in the way of furniture, I like to buy some of his stuff to spice up my furniture shop. I mean look at this! Fabulous!" Hamo held out the life size carving of an owl that he had been holding and began pointing at various places along it. "Look at how clean the cuts are! And look at how well proportioned it is! I reckon if someone mounts this on their roof it might work like a scarecrow!"

"It is very well carved," Alys admitted, staring at the fine lines texturing it's surface to give it feathers.

"So you from this town then?" Hamo asked. Aly gave him an uncertain smile, not sure how to reply, but Hamo continued without waiting for a response. "That'd explain why I hadn't seen yer before." He said with a knowing nod.

Alys smiled for real this time. She was getting the distinct feeling that Hamo was one of those incredibly friendly people who didn't actually require the person they were talking to, to well, talk. "Your home town is larger, so I thought it would be nice to go to their festival," she explained unnecessarily.

"Ah well, can't blame yeh. It was one heck of a festival, weren't it?" he asked, this time elbowing her with enough enthusiasm to knock her sideways a bit.

Immediately the memory of Selendrile kissing her neck popped up in her head and Alys had to fight the rising blush in her cheeks. It was unfair for him to yell at her about their lack of romantic possibility when _he_ was the one who had kissed her. To Hamo though she said, "It was the best Fall Festival I've been too." Which was true, though not for the same reasons he probably was thinking of.

"Well come again next year! It only gets better and better." Hamo paused to scratch his bald head thinking. "Weren't you asking me something before you realized it was me?"

"Oh it doesn't matter now. I just saw someone and was wondering if you recognized them but they're gone-"

"Oh another stranger in town eh? So many of them these days. Maybe they're from that town down yonder," he said airily waving a hand nearly all the way around him. "After they fixed that road more and more of 'em have been traveling over to this town and my town."

"I see," Alys said not really knowing what else to say. It didn't bother Hamo any.

"I love it though! It's always great fun talking to travelers. You won't believe who I talked to just the other day in the inn!"

"Oh?" Alys asked with a smile, knowing he wouldn't need any prompting.

"A couple of men recruiting people to join in a dragon hunt!" Alys's smile slipped off her face, but Hamo didn't seem to notice. "They tried to convince me to join in—can you imagine? Me? A dragon hunter?" Hamo proceeded to laugh so hard he had to wipe a tear out of the corner of his eye. Alys allowed him a weak smile. "Ahhh, not my cup of tea. I told them such but they were very persistent lads. Went so far as to tell me a secret information about it. Get this," he said leaning in conspiratorially, "apparently the dragon, which can turn human, keeps the company of a young woman with short hair!"

Alys felt the color drain from her face as Hamo began laughing again, leaning back away from her. "Apparently that's their trump card for identifying and catching the dragon and that's why they're keeping it a secret. They thought telling me would both convince me of the need to hunt the dragon as well as comfort me about their likely success. Ha! Lads clearly don't know me!" Hamo broke off again laughing. "Ah, me, dragon hunter," he muttered when he finally stopped laughing. "Well, it was good seeing you lass, have to go fetch my cart now though. Visit me shop any time lass!" he said, clapping her on the back again and heading off.

Alys stood there in the middle of the street for a moment, Hamo's words echoing in her head. Finally she managed to gain control of her body again and began walking numbly along. She ended up in the town square, which was surprisingly nice compared to the other towns she had seen. There was a large pool of water in the middle, with stone sides with doubled as benches. There were large pots placed all around it, presumably filled with flowering plants in the springtime, and even further away, eight benches formed a square around the whole thing. Alys walked to the nearest bench and dropped stiffly down into it.

If they knew what she looked like, did that mean they knew what Selendrile looked like? Potentially. Maybe it wasn't so bad though. She would tell Selendrile, and he could avoid the near towns, news couldn't have spread too far past these two towns and the mysterious third she hadn't been to. As for her, she could just avoid going to town until her hair grew out, then she wouldn't risk leading anyone back to Selendrile. Yes, everything would work out just fine.

Alys watched as an elderly couple made their way up to the pool and sat down on the ledge together. They had been linking arms as they walked up, but as soon as they seated themselves the man shifted his hand down so that he held the woman's hand instead, and leaned in to kiss her cheek. The old lady swatted at him, pretending to be embarrassed by his public display of affection. But then the old man said something to her and she laughed before quickly giving him a peck on the cheek as well. Alys smiled as she watched them. She was pretty sure she had mostly seen people younger than herself acting that way, and here they were, having spent a lifetime together, still acting the same way. What must it be like to live to that age and still act so in love? It must be very nice indeed, she decided, trying to imagine herself in the same situation.

Once again Alys felt her smile slipping off her face, a hallow feeling in her chest replacing it. She had imagined the situation alright, only, she could only conjure up an image of herself alone. Because she was in love with a dragon, who not only would never love her back, but also wouldn't age with her. She would grow old, and by the time she died, Selendrile would probably still look like a young man. Maybe a slightly older young man, but still a young man. Alys suddenly felt slightly sick. She had somehow avoided this thought the entire time she was with him, but now that it had formed in her head, she couldn't seem to get rid of it. What would happen to her as she got older? Would he still want to keep her around as her age surpassed his human one? And if he did, what then—what would happen as she got old enough that she couldn't provide for herself anymore? Alys shuddered at the thought of her being old and infirm, Selendrile having to help her prepare food and move around, her unable to leave where ever they were living. She didn't want that any more than she was sure Selendrile wouldn't. But if she wasn't going to grow old living with him, then what _was_ she going to do? She had no where else to go, no skills to make a living with on her own.

Suddenly a solution occurred to her, so obvious she couldn't believe she hadn't thought of it before. _Everything_ that had happened pointed towards one solution: her discovery Selendrile may have been lying to her this entire time, that he might not have trusted her with even the most basic information, the fact he would never be able to love her, but she seemed to fall deeper in love with him every day regardless, and the fact that dragon hunters _knew_ Selendrile hung around a girl that looked like her. Her window of opportunity was slowly closing, and every day she waited would only make things harder.

It was time for her to leave.


	10. Chap 10: Wheels in motion

**Finding What's Eternal  
**Chapter 10

* * *

.x.x.x.

A/N: So in this chapter Alys tells a story- it's a retelling of the story 'Thief, Thief!' which was potentially translated and edited by Hugh O'Reilly from Fabliaux and Stories of the Middle Ages. I feel like I retold the story pretty closely to the original but if the story strikes your fancy I'm sure you can find the original version easily enough on the internet (which is how I found it). Anyways, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

.x.x.x.

* * *

_Alys sat on a log overhanging the creek, occasionally dropping leaves down into the water and watching the current pull them along in swirls down the stream out of sight. _

"_Fascinating," a voice beside her said dryly._

_Alys glanced up startled to see Atherton sitting beside her on the log, looking down at the water at her last leaf. She started sidling away down the log, only to realize there was no where for her to go once she reached the branch covered end. She looked back over to Atherton to find him watching her with a bored look on his face. Alys waited, but he didn't say anything._

"_Why aren't you threatening me?" Alys asked slowly, warily eyeing him from her now distant perch on the log. "You always threaten me, it's my fault you died."_

"_Oh yes, that's true," Atherton agreed. "Quite annoyed about that really. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll meet some terrible end soon enough," he said nonchalantly. "But you aren't particularly worried about me right now," he added after a pause with a shrug._

"_I'm not?" Alys asked hesitantly. It seemed to her she was _always_ worried about him. _

"_No, you're much more worried about leaving your dragon. Disgusting. I don't know why you like that murderous creature."_

"_You're the one who tried murdering him first," Alys pointed out, slowly relaxing and accepting that for once Atherton wasn't trying to kill her._

"_Yes, if only I had succeeded…" he said, his voice trailing off wistfully. Then he looked over at Alys a frowned. "Well you couldn't have thought this was going to end any other way," he observed._

_Alys looked away. She had at least had _hope_ that it would before, even if she didn't really believe it._

"_What, did you think you'd fall in love and magically grow old together, happily weaving baskets and knitting pigs?" he sneered._

_As he spoket a basket with a knitted pig appeared in her lap. 'Oh,' Alys thought looking down at it, 'maybe that's what all the pink yarn was for.'_

"_It'll never love you," Atherton spat._

_Alys sighed. "I know, I know. Can't you tell me something useful instead?"_

_Atherton looked offended by the very thought. "Why would I want to help you? I'm just here to gloat."_

_Alys scowled over at him. "Wouldn't gloating work better if you weren't gloating about something that was my own decision?"_

_Atherton considered this a moment before that awful smile of his crept onto his face. "You're right child, enough gloating." With that suddenly he appeared on the bank of the little stream. "Time to move onto other things," he finished and as he looked out at her smiling, the log snapped. Suddenly her and the log tumbled down into a thundering river, the water tossing her around violently before finally pulling her down into it's depths. _

.x.x.x.

Alys jolted awake, gasping for air, relieved when it filled her lungs instead of water. She hadn't had a nightmare in awhile. Alys sat up and rubbed her face, trying to decide whether it's cause was from her recent encounter with doppelganger in the wrong town or from the fact she was planning to leave tomorrow. Regardless of the cause, it had certainly woken her up.

Alys stood up and opened the shutters, peering outside. The sun was high in the sky. Perhaps it was a little early for her to get up, but it certainly wouldn't be too out of the ordinary. Alys shivered and rubbed her arms as she leaned back in. It really was brutally cold now, even during the days. It was enough to almost have her wishing she had an excuse to sleep against Selendrile again, but she knew that was no longer an option. Ever since their fight things had been… different, and Selendrile rarely showed up at the house until at _least_ an hour after sunset. She had been delaying her departure these past couple days on the excuse that she needed to plan things out, but even _she_ knew she had just been stalling, hoping to repair things with Selendrile first. Maybe even a small part of her hoped he'd convince her to stay. But she had decided last night that she had spent enough time dragging her feet and had finally set the date.

Alys headed into the main room to grab food, unsurprised to find Selendrile absent. As she nibbled on some bread, cheese and withered apple slices she surveyed the shelves filled with various belongings. Her eyes settled on the pink yarn and the wool. Yes, she decided, it's definitely possible to make a stuffed pig with that. But why would she want to make a stuffed pig? She certainly didn't need one. Her thoughts drifted to Risa whom she had planned on seeking out today to say goodbye to. Perhaps she could give one to the girl? It could even serve as an early Christmas present. Alys stuffed the last of the apple into her mouth and pondered this, finally deciding that it was an excellent idea. The poor child must be so lonely to always seek Alys's company instead of her parents' or other children around her own age's attention. She might appreciate something lasting from Alys. Of course, she wouldn't be able to finish a knitted pig early enough in the day to give it to Risa today, but perhaps she could arrange to meet Risa tomorrow morning on her way out? Alys nodded her head as she wiped her hands on her skirt. Yes, that would be the new plan.

.x.x.x.

Upon returning from a brief meeting with Risa Alys immediately set to knitting the pig. It proved a little more difficult than she thought it would, but it was not beyond her talents. Hopefully.

She had finished all four legs and started both the body and the head by the time Selendrile arrived, sliding in through the cloth wall already in human form a mere hour after sunset. "Hello," Alys said without looking up. No matter what he said she wasn't willing to blatantly look at him naked. Besides, since his outburst he had made no comments on the topic, which as far as Alys was concerned, meant he was willing to accept her refusal to look at him so long as she didn't comment on it.

"What are you making?" he asked, somewhat startling Alys.

She looked up to find him standing nearby peering down at the mess of materials sprawled across her lap and around her. "A children's toy," Alys answered, finishing a maneuver with the needles as she said it. She put the four knitted legs on her lap and held up the half knitted head and body. "Believe it or not, soon these will be a knitted pig!"

Selendrile looked at her skeptically before going, "Ah," and sitting down on the rocking chair that had mysteriously appeared in the house the day before. Alys scattered the legs off her lap again and went back to work on knitting the body before glancing across over at Selendrile. He was watching with intense interest and if she wasn't mistaken, a bit of curiosity. Alys raised her eyebrows at him and smiled, daring him to speak his mind.

Selendrile accepted the invitation. "What exactly is the purpose of a stuffed pig?"

Alys laughed. "To… _play_ with?"

Selendrile just looked back at her blankly. Alys watched him for a moment, trying to gauge his understanding. She was going to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he was unfamiliar with how one went about playing with a stuffed toy, not the actual concept of _playing_. She mentally took a deep breath before launching into an explanation, already suspecting that this was going to be their longest conversation in days if she didn't mess it up. "Children can do anything with a toy like this that they want really. They can make up stories with them, and if they have a friend with a similar toy they can do that together. Children have amazing imaginations, their toys could go on the most _fantastic _adventures. Or they could pretend that the toy is their friend and talk to it, that sort of thing. Or on the most basic level, it can just be a thing of comfort for them, something to hold and sleep with."

"But it's not alive," Selendrile pointed out, staring at the pig like the idea of a toy slightly offended him.

"Well, no," Alys admitted, amused. "But sometimes all the adults are busy, and the child isn't able to go play with other children. Those times, having a toy like this can be very nice."

She thought she had done a fairly good job selling it but Selendrile looked very much like he thought it was the stupidest thing ever, which only served to make Alys laugh again. "What, don't little dragons have toys?"

"Nothing like _that_," he said, once again looking at the pig like it offended him.

"No?" Alys echoed, feigning disbelief, "What do little dragons do with their time then? What do their parents do to keep them amused?"

Selendrile paused briefly before asking in return, "What did your father do?"

Alys glanced up at him upon hearing his evasive reply, but he seemed to be inspecting his nails, completely indifferent. Only Alys was well aware it was an act. But she wasn't willing to force the matter anymore than he seemed to be in the mood to answer her question. "Well…," she began slowly, reflecting on her childhood as she began to stuff the body section with wool, "I spent a lot of time playing with other children. We used whatever we could find—haystacks for climbing, tumbling, and making straw dolls, wooden hoops, rocks, sticks—we weren't too particular. Anything can be made into a game when you're that young. And there's always the games that don't require anything, like hide and seek or tag. And even when you're a child there's always _some_ chores you could be doing, especially if you don't have a mother." Alys paused long enough to switch from stuffing back to knitting before continuing, "My father was always fairly busy so he didn't have much time to set aside to just play with me, but somehow being with him while he worked or we did chores together always felt like playing. He used to tell me stories sometimes before we went to bed."

She glanced up at him just long enough to see that while he was still feigning indifference, he did in fact appear to be listening, which considering that half the time he listened to something he gave absolutely no sign of it, probably meant he was actually fairly interested. It was such an odd topic for him to be interested in though. Deciding that she would give him a chance to share she asked, "Do dragons have stories as well?"

Her question was met with more silence, and then eventually a simple, "Some."

Alys waited, but Selendrile didn't elaborate any further. Alys put down the pig while she looked back up at him. He was watching her now, making no effort to look away as she gazed over at him, unreadable face resting in his palm. Alys stared back, trying to figure out what was going on in his head; was he waiting to see if she would press him further? Was his unflinching eye contact him trying to _discourage_ her from asking further? Was he just incredibly bored and that was why he was acting interested, well interested for Selendrile that was, in talking about children? Eventually she gave up and finding she desperately didn't want them to stop talking asked instead, "Would you like to hear one of the stories he used to tell me?"

Again, Selendrile didn't exactly respond, but judging from the fact he just continued to watch her Alys could only assume he was either displaying acceptance of her telling him, or he wanted her to tell him, or he was so bored he had reached the point of apathy. Regardless of what the cryptic to non-existent response was, she figured he had given her the go ahead. Alys nodded and picked up her pig again to work on while she told the story.

_There once was a merchant who was returning home from a fair. He had done particularly good business this time, and carried with him a sealed pouch of many silver and gold coins. When he passed through another town on the way, he decided to stop at the church to pray, as was his custom. But when he stood up to leave, he didn't remember to pick up his pouch as well. A short while later, a man came in to pray and kneeling in the same place, he discovered the money pouch. "What do I do?" the man wondered. "If I spread the news I have discovered this valuable item, someone may try to falsely claim it!" But the man was clever and came up with a plan. He took the sealed pouch home with him, and wrote on his door, 'If seeking something lost, inquire here'._

_Now the merchant, upon discovering his pouch missing, was distraught. "Woe be to me!" he exclaimed, "I am ruined for I have lost everything!" He ran back to the church only to find his pouch gone, and no one who knew its whereabouts. But as he walked through the town he noticed the writing on the man's door, and called through the open window, "Sir, did you write this on your door?"_

_The man asked in return, "Why friend, did you lose something?"_

"_I have lost everything!" the merchant exclaimed. The man patiently asked him to explain. As the merchant explained the man saw that it was indeed this merchant who had lost the pouch, and kindly returned it to the merchant. The merchant took it back gratefully, but immediately felt embarrassed. The man had been so honest and selfless that it was he, not the merchant, who deserved the money. The merchant announced that it was such, and handed the pouch back to the man._

"_Good sir, I cannot take your pouch! It is your money not mine!" the man exclaimed, but the merchant refused to let him give it back, and instead ran away. The man began yelling, "Thief, thief! That man has robbed me!" and his neighbors upon hearing this, chased after the merchant and brought him back to the man._

"_What is it he stole from you? We will make him give it back!" they declared._

"_Dear neighbors," he replied, "I value my honesty above all else except my faith. If I accepted this pouch of money from this merchant, it would cast doubt that I acted contrary to this honesty, that I acted in interest of myself. So, as you can see, if this man forced me to keep his money, though it will have been out of the goodness of his heart, he will have stolen my integrity." The neighbors agreed with the man, and even the merchant agreed, so he took his money back, and continued to travel home._

"The End," Alys finished somewhat lamely. "It's not quite as good as it would have been had my father told it, but that's the gist of it at least," she added a little self-consciously.

"It's the best version of the story I've heard," Selendrile offered.

Alys resisted the urge to point out it was the _only_ version of the story he had heard. "Nothing else came close huh?" she asked instead.

"Can't even compare really," Selendrile affirmed, still straight faced with the exception of a slight upward curve to one side of his mouth. Progress.

"I feel so much better about myself," Alys replied back sarcastically with a smile. She set aside the finished body and went to finishing the half knitted head. "You know," Alys said thoughtfully after a few minutes, "it's a bit ironic that that story was one of my father's favorite stories to tell me, and here I am, living off of stolen things. What _would_ my father say?" She looked up at Selendrile and narrowed her eyes. "He'd probably blame you," she accused playfully.

"Me?" Selendrile asked, one hand pressing to his chest as if startled by the accusation.

"Well _I_ certainly wasn't raised to live off of stolen items and think it okay. _You_ must be the bad influence. Doubtless he wouldn't approve of you," Alys said, glancing up at Selendrile from her knitting just long enough to shake her head at him.

"Everyone approves of me," Selendrile replied with a charming smile, stating it like an obvious fact. To be fair, it sort of was, but Alys wasn't about to _admit_ that to him.

"Ah, but fathers are a different thing entirely. Charm and wit won't get you far with them, not when it's their daughter in question," Alys informed him, also stating it like it was an obvious fact. It wasn't exactly true of course, but that wasn't strictly necessary.

"You think I'm charming and witty?"

"I think many of your acquaintances think you're charming and witty," Alys replied firmly, sending him a stern look lest he get any ideas.

"Everyone approves of me," Selendrile repeated, this time with a knowing smile and gracious bow of the head.

"My father wouldn't have."

"Not even a little?"

"I suppose he would approve of the fact you provide me with plenty of food," Alys allowed, smiling down at the now mostly stuffed pig face.

"Some of that food isn't even stolen. I'm an excellent hunter, surely that counts for something."

"Yes, but then there is the slight problem of you having appeared in front of me _completely_ naked several times. The indecency! We aren't so much as engaged!" Alys replied dramatically. She wasn't sure joking about such a thing was entirely wise, but she desperately wanted to heal the wounds caused by the fight so to speak, and had been encouraged by his animated responses. Ever since their fight and her unvoiced decision it was time to leave conversation between them had been somewhat strained. One moment they would be getting along, the next there would either be an uncomfortable silence or one of them would snap at the other. Not to mention Selendrile had been increasingly absent. For the first time in awhile things felt easy and normal between them, and though she _knew_ she'd regret it later that night when she was preparing to leave, at the moment all she wanted to do was bask in it and soak up every last bit of his presence she could. Even if that meant pushing her limits a little.

"Would an engagement remedy the problem?" he asked with mock intensity.

"Doubtful. You don't have a good occupation to bring to the engagement negotiations," Alys returned, resisting the urge to smile in relief at having gotten him to return the joke.

"Mysterious ability to produce moderate sums of coins doesn't count?"

"'Fraid not."

"Ah well, I suppose I'm destined to never be able to earn your father's approval," Selendrile conceded rather flippantly.

_Not even the decency to pretend he cares_, Alys thought while she smiled and shook her head. She took her now completed pig parts and set to sewing them together. She glanced up at Selendrile to find him watching her again, smile faded from his eyes, but still lingering slightly on his mouth. "Will you tell me a dragon story sometime?" Alys asked somewhat hesitantly.

Selendrile's eyes shifted slightly off to the side as he considered. "Sometime," he finally agreed.

Alys couldn't tell whether he was being truthful or evasive, but it wasn't the 'no' that silence would indicate so she smiled and nodded before putting on the last few stitches on the pig. "Look! I finished it!"

Selendrile stared at it. "That doesn't look like a pig," he denied.

"It does too," Alys insisted, managing to sound only slightly offended.

"It's misshapen."

Alys cast an appraising look at the pig she was holding out in her hands. The legs didn't all quite match, the side had a bulge on it, the way she had sewn the ears on it made them inclined to flop backwards instead of forward, and the snout ended up being far too long and crooked; it was ugly. But hey, it was her first attempt. She practically had to make up the knitting technique and had been talking nearly the entire time she made it. All things considered, misshapen or not it had turned out fairly well. Alys threw the pig a Selendrile. "Just for that this just became your Christmas present," she announced standing up, stretching, and gathering her supplies.

"But I don't want it," Selendrile replied, having caught it and now staring at it as if he thought it was about to grow a second head.

"Enjoy, it's from the bottom of my heart," Alys said giving a sweet smile before turning on her heel and heading for her room.

"It isn't even Christmas, what am I supposed to do with it?" Selendrile asked right as Alys made it to the door.

"Good night!" she called brightly instead of answering.

This earned her narrowed eyes, and then a pig soaring through the air, over her head, into the bedroom. Alys blinked. It was truly impressive he managed to throw such a light thing that far, that accurately. Then she sighed and shut her door. Selendrile would never cease to be amazing to her; that was why she had to leave.

.x.x.x.

Alys woke up early in the day, true to plan. Her sudden decision to force the ugly pig on Selendrile hadn't really caused any problems for her considering making a second one was far easier than making a first. This time making a pig only took a couple of hours. When she finished she opened the shutters and curtains and built up the fire, with the plan of using the dying fire and cold morning air to wake her.

As she had predicted her sleep had been fitful, and she spent the majority of the night tossing and turning wide awake. While Selendrile had left not long after her sudden flight into her room, he had come back again at some point in the night, only to leave again a few hours later, right before sunrise. Those couple of hours had been the worst—she couldn't sleep at all during them for every time he moved her senses snapped back to attention, ruining any chance of drifting off. Not that he moved all that much, but it had been enough. It didn't help that she kept fighting the urge to go and look at him one last time, unwilling to accept that she already had seen him for the last time. She knew getting up to go look at him wasn't going to help anything; all getting up to look at him would achieve is her not sleeping, risking raising suspicions with Selendrile, and still wanting to look at him again after she did. So Alys forced herself to stay in bed, even if it meant just lying there awake. Eventually he had left and eventually she got in a couple hours of sleep.

But when she awoke she didn't feel tired, or anxious, or guilty, or sad. She felt calm. So as soon as she got up she set to work- tying on a hidden coin purse around her waist, changing into the new sturdy dress and cloak, and packing up all the various items she thought she might need: a second visible coin purse, a small animal pelt to sleep atop the cold ground on, a small blanket, a water flask, food, a change of cloths, mittens, a knife, and a comb. She then made the bed up, wrapped the scarf he had given her around the ugly pig and set it atop the bed. It would serve as a message that she had left purposely and with any luck Selendrile would receive the message and just let things be.

"Right, time to go," Alys announced to herself, grabbing a hold of Risa's pig before turning on her heel and striding away. She made it all the way to the front door before she paused. No, she couldn't leave without taking something that reminded her of Selendrile. She had prepared herself to leave him, but not to leave him from her memory. She couldn't do that, not yet. She hurried back into her room and pulled the scarf off of pig. She clutched it to her chest for a moment before heading out once again. As she opened the front door Alys turned to look back into their little cottage one last time. "Goodbye Selendrile," she whispered, before firmly pulling the door shut behind her.

.x.x.x.

Alys had only waited about half an hour before she heard the light padding of Risa's footsteps on the still frozen ground. Alys smiled over at the girl as she came into view through the trees, and beckoned her to come across the garden to sit with her. Risa bounded over, dropping down on the ground beside Alys as she went, "So you said you would have something for me?" Well no one could accuse the child of being indirect.

"I do," Alys admitted, pulling the knit pig out of her skirts where she had hidden it and handing it over to Risa. Risa took it questioningly. "I know you're probably a little old for toys like that, but I wanted your Christmas gift to be something I made for you myself."

Risa furrowed her brow at that. "I know it's really cold out and everything but Christmas is still aways off…." Risa's voice trailed off as she noticed the pack which was laying beside the tree Alys was sitting against. "Alys, why is your pack so full today?" she asked, sounding a little panicked.

Alys sighed. She hadn't really known how Risa would take the news and judging from the way she was reacting so far it wasn't going to go as easily as she had tried to fool herself into thinking it would. Regardless of _what_ their relationship was exactly, the little girl did spend an awful lot of time with Alys. And for a child, that probably was enough to make Alys important to her. "Risa, I won't be around for Christmas to give you the gift."

"What do you mean you won't be around?" Risa demanded the instant Alys had finished the last word.

"I'm leaving-"

"Leaving where?" Risa interrupted, her voice beginning to sound dangerously shrill.

Alys sighed again. "I'm just…leaving. It's time for me to go. I asked you to meet me here today so I could say goodbye."

"Fine so you're leaving but you're coming back right? When will you be back?"

Alys just shook her head sadly at Risa. She had thought that the girl already suspected that that would be the answer, but apparently she either didn't or just really didn't like having her suspicions confirmed because Risa scrambled up, kicked Alys in the leg and shrieked, "_What's wrong with you?"_

Uh-oh, she hadn't anticipated a melt down. Risa had always been cheeky, but she also had an amazingly level temper for a child. Granted, Alys had only ever played with her, perhaps if she had tried disciplining Risa or something like that she would have experienced a temper-tantrum on Risa's part before. But seeing as she had never done that, this was uncharted territory.

"Hey! You can't just kick me!" Alys objected before she could help herself.

She immediately realized this was a bad idea even before Risa threw the pig at Alys and shrieked back, "_WHY NOT? You're being stupid!" _Risa's hands clenched into fists and her chin started to tremble, but before Alys could think of a suitable response to that Risa went on shrieking. "_No, you're not just stupid you're mean! Meanest person that ever lived_!" She then started bawling and ran away.

"Crap," Alys muttered as she sprang up to do damage control. Alys caught up with Risa easily and grabbed hold of her arm, pulling her to a stop. Risa immediately tried twisting her arm out of Alys grasp. "Hey, quit it!" Alys said sharply enough to startle Risa into being more docile. "Look, I'm sorry I'm leaving but I have to go," she said trying her best to sound firm without sounding harsh.

"Everyone always leaves," Risa said, chin starting to tremble again now that the shock of being yelled at was wearing off. Well that certainly made her feel guilty.

"Come here," Alys ordered, holding her arms out. Risa stood there stubbornly for a moment before losing her will power and coming over to bury her head in Alys's stomach. Alys rubbed the girl's back a little to calm her down while she mulled over the situation a little. "I don't _want_ to leave you Risa, you know that right?" she asked after a little while.

Risa nodded her head, an action which Alys strongly suspected resulted in her wiping her nose on Alys's bodice. But the girl seemed to be calming down, and Alys would take the snot over the tantrum any day. Alys racked her brains for some more comforting things to say but just drew a blank. She had never really considered herself gifted when it came to speech, especially when she was trying to approach a delicate or emotional situation. Instead Alys just hugged the girl and hoped for the best. Eventually Risa mumbled something into Alys stomach. "What?" Alys asked.

Risa turned her head a little to the side and tried again. "I want the pig."

Alys couldn't help smiling triumphantly at that. "Of course you want the pig. It's a wonderful pig! Come on, let's go get it." Risa took hold of Alys hand and Alys led her back to the garden where she was reunited with the knit animal.

After only a few short bouts of stick swordplay to cheer Risa up, Alys bid her a final goodbye and asked her to look after Scampers. Alys then journeyed back to the house, skirting around the property keeping to the woods until she found the cart trail which she followed to the road. She had put some serious thought into which town to go to. The nearby town had the advantage of the fact Selendrile didn't actually know she had been there before (her decision to leave made it unnecessary to inform Selendrile about what she had learned in the town), so it was unexpected in that regard. But it was also very close. The other town had the disadvantage of being the one she _had_ been to with Selendrile, but it was also a larger town, and much, much farther away, making it potentially _more_ unexpected than the nearby town. In the end Alys had settled on the far away town deciding her opportunities there were greater and her chances of running into Selendrile there were lesser.

Alys walked along the edge of the road, figuring that if Selendrile were to happen to fly above, he would be nearly as likely to see her through the bare trees as he was to see her on the road. Besides, who's to say he even paid any attention to the travelers on the road? Alys walked until her legs ached but even then, she only paused to pull some food out of her pack and eat it along the way.

The hours seemed to stretch out for eternity, and her fingers, feet and face seemed to reach a new level of numb never previously achieved. But at least it gave her a distraction. She was finding that she rather didn't like her own thoughts for company. She didn't like thinking about the fact she wasn't going to see Selendrile again, nor the thought that she was _purposely_ never seeing Selendrile again. She didn't like wondering how long it would take him to figure out she was gone, or what he would think when he did. She didn't like thinking about him _at all _actually. She didn't like thinking about what was going to happen when she made it to the town, something which she hadn't entirely figured out yet. Things had always worked out before even when she didn't know what she was doing, but then again, Selendrile had always also been there when she went to other towns, which was something else she didn't like thinking about. She didn't like thinking about how she somehow had to find someone to marry her, or the fact she even needed to get married, or what the person she'd hopefully end up marrying would be like, or the fact marriage implied bearing a child, a notion that frightened her slightly. She didn't like thinking about leaving Risa and Scampers, or her father, or Atherton, or his doppelganger, or the dragon hunters, or how long her food supply would last, or how unbearably cold sleeping outside was going to be tonight. So really, thinking about how impossibly numb her extremities were getting was a welcome thought.

Eventually the sun began to dip towards the horizon and Alys veered off into the woods in search of a sheltering place to sleep, well hide really, for the night. She eventually wandered to a rocky area, where she found two evergreens growing right beside a boulder. Alys scooted underneath the foliage was pleased to find that she could slide underneath a part of the rock that jutted out if she laid down, and that she could sit upright without too many branches interfering if she sat next to the rock; either way between the rock and the trees she doubted she was visible from the sky. Alys ate her dinner, while absentminded pondering how birds of prey, or dragons, managed to sight living animals from such great heights. Eventually she decided that movement must be the largest indicator of life, because really, how different could a gray mouse look from a rock from way up in the sky? Now a moving mouse-rock, that was a different matter entirely.

Alys sighed realizing that this meant she probably shouldn't move lest she attract attention to herself. But that thought was followed by the realization that her nearly complete lack of sleep the night before had left her actually tired at sundown. Alys sighed again—already she was switching over to a more human schedule. With that thought she rolled underneath the overhanging rock onto her little animal pelt, and curled up under her blanket.

The next day proved to be more miserable than the first seeing as the weather had decided it was time to snow. Her brain however reached such a superb state of boredom while walking though, that it actually succeeded in entertaining her with sporadic, incredibly random thoughts that suddenly seemed very interesting indeed. Alys trudged through the snow thinking about things like proper snow man dimensions, what the tree with prettiest leaves was, what instrument she would most like to learn to play, how one would go about building a chair, and so on. Fellow travelers paid her little attention, and she returned the gesture. Right when Alys was beginning to wonder where she'd find a dry place to sleep (even though it stopped snowing midday, there were several inches of snow on the ground) that night the town gates came into view. "There you are," Alys muttered to herself as she picked up her pace to reach the gates before sundown.


End file.
